Sage of the Leaf
by HistorianoftheKais
Summary: It is said that a butterfly flapping its wings in America will cause a hurricane in China. Watch what happens to Naruto as a small change in Jiraiya's wanderings causing huge changes in Naruto's life.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto in any way shape or form. Seriously, if you're smart enough to find this on the web then you're smart enough to figure that out. Now that I've gotten that out of the way I just want to say something: the reason why I'm starting this instead of continuing to work on Wraith of the Shinigami is because I wanted to get away from bloodline stories. Basically I want to show that canon Naruto can be a great ninja if he's given just a little help.

* * *

Jiraiya was not happy at all. Originally Jiraiya had been on his way to Wave Country in order to follow up some money trails that his spy network had detected. However, Jiraiya had that little spy mission on hold when he stumbled across Team 7 heading towards Wave as well. The old Sannin had decided against revealing himself to the team, and instead he had been discreetly following them.

In Jiraiya's opinion, Kakashi was an abysmal genin team instructor. What was that Cyclops thinking when he decided to continue the mission after the demon brothers tried to kill the bridge builder? At the very least Kakashi should have called for backup. Thanks to Kakashi's showboating, Jiraiya had nearly been forced to reveal himself during that little fight with Zabuza. And to make matters even worse in Jiraiya's mind, Kakashi was just introducing his genin to tree climbing. That was something they should have been taught during their first week as genin!

Needless to say, Jiraiya was not amused with the antics of his number one fan. Kakashi might be one of the strongest ninjas currently living in Konoha, but that didn't necessarily mean he was suited to teach. However, even though Jiraiya wasn't happy with Kakashi, he was even less thrilled with the rest of Team 7. The Uchiha's personality was just a bit too much like Orochimaru's when the Sanin were genins for Jiraiya's comfort. Sakura was still too much of a fangirl in her outlook and that one the type of girl that could turn Jiraiya off. As for Naruto, well that was complicated.

On the one hand, Naruto was very determined to succeed and was too stubborn to give up on anything. But on the other hand, the boy was too hyper and seemed to let information pass through one ear and out the other. Seriously, didn't the kid pay any attention in class? All and all it seemed to Jiraiya that Naruto had stamina, unpredictability, and shear determination going for him. It was obvious that it would take a lot of work to get Naruto to become a great ninja like the kid wanted to become.

A part of Jiraiya just wanted to leave Naruto alone for now and let Kakashi deal with the brat. After all, it was Kakashi's responsibility to insure that Naruto learned how to be a decent ninja. Jiraiya quickly realized what he thinking and smacked himself. Kakashi obviously wasn't going to cut it as a teacher for Naruto or the brat wouldn't be in his current condition.

Something had to be done, but what? Jiraiya couldn't just poach Naruto from Kakashi. Besides the fact that stealing a student was heavily frowned on, Jiraiya didn't want to commit himself to the time and energy of taking on a new student. However, he couldn't leave his godson in this state and hope for the best. For the next several hours Jiraiya watched as Naruto tried to get the hang of tree climbing. Finally Jiraiya figured out the answer after Naruto fell asleep from exhaustion.

In a nonchalant manner, Jiraiya whipped out a few scrolls and books from one of his summoning scrolls. Jiraiya then placed the scrolls and books on Naruto's chest. Next the toad sannin pulled out his notebook, wrote a note, and then he stuck the note on top of the scrolls. After that Jiraiya looked over his work and muttered, "Don't disappoint me brat. Show me that you're willing to take the next step."

* * *

Naruto groggily started to wake up when the sun first started to rise in the sky. As Naruto raised his hand to rub the sleep from his eyes his elbow knocked over the stack of scrolls. When Naruto heard the scrolls fall he muttered, "Huh? What's going on?" Once his vision cleared up, Naruto noticed the messed up pile of scrolls that were at his side. Without thinking at all Naruto practically shouted out, "Where did these come from?"

Since Naruto couldn't figure out how those scrolls and books got there, he simply decided to randomly pick one and start reading. The chosen manuscript happened to be a book on Chakra that was titled 101 Ways to use Chakra for Dummies. At first Naruto wanted to chuck the book since it seemed to be one of those theory books that he could never get. But then Naruto remembered that tree walking was a method of using Chakra and there was the chance that the book contained cool tricks like that.

101 Ways to use Chakra for Dummies captured Naruto's attention from the get go. The book was written in an easy to follow manner that explain Chakra in a manner that Naruto could understand. Unlike the lectures at the academy, this book was able to catch and hold Naruto's attention. Amazingly, Naruto was so caught up in what the text was telling him that he didn't skip to a chakra exercise as soon as the book mentioned them.

Naruto was so engrossed in the book that he didn't notice Kakashi come out of the house and approach. Naturally Kakashi was a little worried about the book and scrolls surrounding Naruto. The boy hadn't brought them with him and Kakashi knew that neither of his other students would let Naruto borrow a book. Just as Kakashi was about to confiscate the book in Naruto's hand, Kakashi noticed the note that was lying on the ground. After picking up and reading Jiraiya's note Kakashi said, "Naruto. Do you know where these books and scrolls came from?"

The blond genin looked up and replied, "Uh, no Kakashi. Does it really matter where the books came from?"

Kakashi let out a small sigh and tired to enlighten his foolish student. "Yes Naruto, it does matter. You've got to look underneath the underneath. These books could have been planted by an enemy as a trap. Luckily, these were left by an ally of the village who was passing through so it's okay to read them. Next time Naruto, please use your head."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, nodded his head, and then said, "Understood. But Kakashi, why would anyone set a trap with books? Wouldn't ramen be better bait for a trap?" Kakashi decided to not dignify that last comment and left Naruto alone to read his book. After all, it wasn't like Naruto would apply what was in those books in real life and Kakashi was happy to not have Naruto bugging him for jutsus.

It took Naruto most of the day to read through 101 Ways to use Chakra for Dummies. As soon as Naruto finished the last page of the book he looked around and screamed out, "What! I blew off the whole day? Great, just great, now I'll have to work twice as hard to catch up on my training."

Before Naruto could get up, Kakashi suddenly appeared in front of Naruto and said, "Hold on there Naruto. You're going strait inside the house. It wouldn't be wise to spend two nights out here in a row. Now collect your things and head in." Naruto started to grumble about not being able to practice, but he did as he was told. There was no way he'd let Sakura get the idea that he was an immature child by disobeying Kakashi's command.

When Naruto and Kakashi entered the house Sasuke and Sakura were already sitting down at the table for dinner. Dinner was a fairly quiet affair since Naruto was sitting off to the end of the table silently pouting about not getting any training in. None of the other members wanted to hear Naruto complain about missing out on training, so they kept their voices down and didn't mention anything remotely like training.

Once dinner was over Kakashi had Naruto and Sasuke go to their room and told them to get plenty of sleep for their training tomorrow. This left Naruto with a bit of a problem. He wasn't tired enough to go to sleep yet since he hadn't spent the day training. For a second Naruto thought about sneaking out for some late night training, but then he remembered that Sakura wouldn't like it if he disobeyed Kakashi.

Since Naruto couldn't train, he started to rack his brain to figure out what he could do until he got tired enough to go to bed. At first Naruto came up with the idea of talking to Sasuke to pass the time. True, Naruto didn't really want to talk to Sasuke, but it wasn't like Sakura would like him interrupting her beauty sleep.

Unfortunately for Naruto, Sasuke had already fallen asleep and he knew better then to try and wake Sasuke up once the Uchiha was asleep. Naruto had tried that once a few days ago and his butt had discovered that Sasuke thought that a kunai made a good substitute teddy bear. So, Naruto was left with only one option to keep from going bored: reading. Needless to say, Naruto wasn't too thrilled about reading since that was why he hadn't gotten any practice in today. However, boredom eventually forced Naruto to pick one of the books that he had received and read them.

This time Naruto looked at the titles and settled on a scroll that was labeled 1001 different Ninjutsu you should know or watch out for. At first Naruto was ecstatic because the scroll had dozens of high level jutsus listed. However, when Naruto started to read the higher level jutsus, he discovered that the scroll only described those jutsus in general terms. Sure the scroll allowed you to know what the higher level jutsus did so that you could recognize it being use against you, but Naruto didn't want that. He wanted to learn how to do all of these cool Jutsus.

Naruto was beginning to think about pitching the scroll when something in the Shadow Clone's description caught his eye. After reading the description again Naruto scratched his head and said, "Huh? The person using the Shadow Clone Jutsu learns whatever his shadow clones learn. Wait a second, if this is correct then I could create a whole army of shadow clones and I'll learn everything faster then Sasuke!" As soon as that thought entered Naruto's mind he continued on reading trying to see what other tricks about Shadow Clones the scroll contained.

* * *

For the rest of the week the forest around Tazuna's house was infested by a swarm of Naruto's shadow clones. Now using shadow clones in this manner can't grant the user any physical benefit. In order to get physically stronger Naruto would have tough it out and put himself in a physical conditioning regime. However, since chakra control was a mental process, Naruto was able to use his shadow clones to work on the tree walking exercise.

While the clones were trying to go back to the trees, the original Naruto spent his time working on some of the jutsus that were written on the 1001 different Ninjutsu you should know or watch out for scroll. It turned out that there were a few jutsus on the scroll that had instructions in addition to the descriptions. None of these Jutsus were above C rank, but Naruto was so happy about learning new jutsus that he didn't have time to complain about the other jutsus he couldn't learn just yet. Of course, Naruto completely disregard the D and E rank jutsus and just focused in on the available C ranked jutsus.

However, there was one small snag with Naruto's plan to learn the C rank jutsus. Since the scroll was originally made in Konoha, it only explained those moves that Konoha ninjas usually used. That meant that most of the C rank jutsus were fire style jutsus and there was no way Naruto was going to learn one of those. After all, how could he possibly prove himself to Sakura if it looked like he was copying Sasuke?

Luckily for Naruto's ego, Jiraiya had penciled in the instructions for a few C rank wind jutsus. When Naruto had read about those jutsus he just knew that they were perfect for him. After all, wind jutsus were big, strong, and made sure that your enemy remembered that you kicked their butt. Sure there weren't a whole lot of wind jutsus in the scroll, but Naruto knew that he'd have them down by the time Zabuza came back for round 2.

The rest of Team 7 had mixed feelings about Naruto's new training regime. While a part of Sakura was curious about what Naruto was doing, the dominate part of the pink haired girl's psyche was happy that Naruto wasn't bugging her. Sasuke was also curious about Naruto's training, but the last Uchiha preferred to leave Naruto alone. Since Naruto could never beat him, Sasuke figured the training would hopefully make Naruto less of a hindrance then he currently was.

As for Kakashi, he was just happy that Naruto was improving without him having to hold the boy's hand every step of the way. However, Kakashi had made some changes in how the team was running. For instance he imposed a strict curfew after which no one could leave the house and he had Naruto set some perimeter traps. It was completely unacceptable that someone had been able to get that close to the house without someone knowing. If it had been an enemy instead of a friend then Team 7 could have been slaughtered. That was one mistake that Kakashi wasn't planning on making again any time soon.

* * *

About ten days after Jiraiya left those scrolls to Naruto, Zabuza showed up for a rematch. The first sign that Zabuza had arrived was the thick mist that suddenly rolled in from the far end of the bridge. As soon as the first signs of the mist appeared Kakashi's eye narrowed and he called out, "Sakura, guard Tazuna. Naruto, Sasuke, form a line between Sakura and me. If Zabuza's partner shows up, you two will have to delay him until I finish off Zabuza.

Naruto and Sasuke quickly glanced at each other and slowly nodded in sync. They might not like each other and would rather be fighting by themselves, but somewhere deep inside their brains they knew that they'd have to depend on each other to win. After the brief pact of comradeship was made, Naruto and Sasuke turned their attention to the smaller form they saw in the mist. That shadowy form had to be their target and both of them were eager to fight.

Sakura was mentally a mess as she took her assigned spot next to Tazuna. On the one hand she was happy that she wasn't on the front line of the fight. But, on the other hand she didn't like the idea of Naruto backing Sasuke up. After all, Naruto would just be a big target and Sasuke would have to work twice as hard to defend himself and Naruto.

Haku looked at Naruto and Sasuke trying to figure out how he should handle the two of them. It was obvious to Haku that in terms of physical skill, Sasuke was the bigger threat. However, Haku remembered from Zabuza's first fight with the duo that he couldn't discount Naruto. While Naruto was more unrefined then Sasuke, the blonde's unpredictability was enough to put him at about the same threat level.

The battle of the students opened with Haku throwing a spread of Senbon needles towards Naruto and Sasuke. Naturally both boys dodged the needles; though Sasuke's doge was a lot more graceful then Naruto's. Haku followed his opening attack by jumping towards the duo, landing on his hands, and delivered to head kick to both genin.

Naruto and Sasuke quickly recovered from Haku's opening combo and immediately retaliated. Sakura and Tazuna watched on in silent shock as the three boys entered a taijutsu battle to the death. Haku had quickly caught on to the fact that Naruto and Sasuke weren't used to fighting with a partner in close corners. Thus he was forcing the boys into close combat by getting in their faces. Since Haku was always too close to either Naruto or Sasuke, the other couldn't attack Haku with a jutsu.

However, things weren't all peachy for Haku. While Zabuza had trained Haku to fight multiple opponents, Zabuza had only taught Haku how to fight opponents who used similar styles. Haku simply couldn't keep track of both of his opponents and predict both of their wildly different attack patterns. Slowly, but surely, the small shallow cuts and the glancing fist blows that Haku received started to add up.

It was obvious to Haku that if he didn't do something soon, then he might slip up and either of his opponents could land a fatal blow. Haku gracefully swirled away from Naruto's attempt to punch him in the back of the head and Zabuza's apprentice rapidly went through a series of handsigns. The instant Haku finished signing, a giant dome comprised of Ice mirrors suddenly enveloped the trio. Haku capitalized on Naruto and Sasuke's momentary confusion by diving into the nearest mirror.

Naruto and Sasuke quickly moved back to back out of instinct. As they look outwards at their icy prison Naruto said, "Hey Sasuke. Lets try to blast our way out." Sasuke shot out a fireball at one mirror while Naruto tried to pound a different mirror with Gale Wind Palm.

Unfortunately, Naruto's and Sasuke's attacks only scratched their targets. Then as if to add insult to injury, both mirrors rapidly repaired themselves leaving no trace of the boys' attempt to escape. Haku's voice echoed throughout the icy prison saying, "This is my ultimate attack. Neither of you has any hope of escape. Make your peace with life for you will soon leave it."

In his usual rambunctious manner Naruto said, "Hey Sasuke. What happens when fire gets caught in a breeze?"

For a second Sasuke wanted to smack Naruto over the head. Seriously, how could Naruto even think of asking a question like that at a time like this? But then Sasuke caught on to what Naruto was suggesting and he started to grin. In a slightly less arrogant then normal manner Sasuke said, "3'oclock on 3, 1, 2, 3!" As soon as Sasuke said three he launched the largest fireball that he could make. Naruto almost instantly followed with a Great Breakthrough.

Both the Great Breakthrough and the Gale Wind Palm took relatively the same skill and chakra to perform. Where these two wind justsus differed was in how they were used. Gale Wind Palm concentrated the blast for great penetrating power. Great Breakthrough worked by creating a slightly weaker, but much larger blast to literally blow the enemy away. Thanks to this fact and how fire and wind jutsus worked, Naruto's and Sasuke's attacks merged to create an enormous, blazing hot fireball.

Haku was paralyzed in shock when he saw the roaring fireball approach him. Zabuza's apprentice tried desperately to think of a way to escape from the oncoming attack. No matter where Haku looked, he couldn't find a way to escape. Naruto and Sasuke's combined attack was big enough that no matter which mirror Haku jumped to he would be hit by the attack. Knowing that escape was impossible, Haku closed his eyes and calmly waited for the attack to hit.

Instantly after the blazing hot fireball collided with the frozen mirrors a huge explosion occurred. Both Naruto and Sasuke were forced to cover their eyes from the flares and minuscule ice shards. As soon as they could, they uncovered their eyes and gazed at the destruction they caused. While the actual damage to the structure of the bridge was light, there was vast surface scaring and there were occasional whips of smoke coming up. Naruto blinked his eyes at the damage and dumbly said, "Whoa, I didn't think we'd do this much if we teamed up."

Sasuke would have retort that he did most of the damage, if he had been paying attention to Naruto. Currently the avenger of team 7 was staring at Haku's corpse. Even though Sasuke didn't like to admit, Haku had been stronger then him. That was something that angered and exhilarated Sasuke; by beating Haku Sasuke had proved he was one step closer to beating Itachi.

However, there was one thing about the battle that infuriated Sasuke. Why hadn't his Sharingan activated? According to the Uchiha family scrolls, his battle with Haku was an almost perfect situation for the Sharingan to emerge. Sasuke's face hardened and he turned to look at Naruto. Could it be that Naruto's presence in the battle had prevented the Sharingan's emergence?

Sasuke's musing and Naruto's staring quickly ended when the two of them heard the sound of birds chirping coming from the mist where Zabuza and Kakashi were fighting. Next, they heard a meaty smack and saw a figure start to walk towards them in the mist. Both Naruto and Sasuke let out sighs of relief when they saw Kakashi immerge from the mist.

Kakashi looked at the blast damage, then at Haku's body, and then at the boys. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the two had teamed up to defeat their opponent. There was no way that Sasuke had enough chakra to create a fireball big enough to do this kind of damage. And while Naruto might have enough chakra, Kakashi knew he blond student didn't have the control or the knowledge to create a fireball capable of this kind of damage. So in his typical manner Kakashi said, "Good job you two. This is why teamwork is so important. Now why don't we go check up on Sakura and Tazuna?"

* * *

Over at Gato's compound Jiraiya was sitting at Gato's desk reading the late scum's papers. At first Jiraiya had been planning on leaving Gato alone and just gathering more information on the crime lord. Sure the toad sage didn't like what the man was doing, but taking out the crime lord would have created some tangles for Jiraiya's spy network. That had all changed when Jiraiya had discovered that Gato was into forced prostitution.

Sure Jiraiya liked to visit brothels, but forced prostitution was beyond the pail for him. After all, it was one thing when the women choose the profession and it was an entirely different thing to force a woman into that line of work. Jiraiya was the biggest pervert on the continent; however, he had a strict look but don't touch unless the woman agreed policy. In fact, Jiraiya was known to beat down any guy who groped a girl. That was why so many of the older kunoichi could stand to work with Jiraiya in spite of his peeping habits. None of Gato's men had been spared from Jiraiya's wrath during the one man assault on the base.

As Jiraiya went through Gato's ledger he could scarcely believe his luck. Gato had kept a clear record of every illegal business that he had been involved in. More then that, Gato kept a record of every public official that he had been bribing and even had them down by name. This surprised Jiraiya since crime lords usually used code phrases for their bribery accounts. Gato must have been one confident scumbag if he willing to write all of this down without trying to hide anything. Of course Jiraiya reason, this ledger was never meant to see the light of day and this was just for Gato's private viewing.

While Jiraiya was collecting the various official papers needed to put over 100 compromised officials and practically every two-bit gang in jail, a small toad hopped into the room. In all honesty Jiraiya couldn't remember who the toad was, but he could remember that the toad was one of Gamabuta's nephews. In a disinterested manner the toad sage said, "What you got to report?"

Toad sent Jiraiya a piercing glare and then replied, "Just reporting about the bridge. All of the Konoha ninjas survived the battle relatively unharmed. The Jonin took out the missing ninja with the zanbatou, while the two boys took out the other ninja with a combo fireball attack. That's all, so can I leave now?"

Jiraiya waved the toad away and said, "Sure, sure." While the toad disappeared, Jiraiya thought about the report on the bridge. From the sounds of things everything was turning out all right. Obviously, Naruto had been studying those scrolls that he had left the brat. Depending on how far Naruto came, the boy might get another gift like that the next time Jiraiya was in Konoha.

* * *

Naruto sat on Tazuna's dock as the evening star first appeared and stared out across the water. For the first time in Naruto's young life he had taken a life and it was eating him up inside. It wasn't just "an enemy" that he had killed, but a real human being with hopes and dreams. Did he, Naruto wondered; have the right to take those hopes and dreams from someone? Was he really a monster like many of the villagers claimed?

No, he couldn't be a monster. A monster wouldn't feel remorse over killing someone. Since he felt remorse over Haku's death, Naruto knew without a doubt that he wasn't a monster. But still, what was he and what right did he have to take someone else's life?

Slowly Naruto started to remember everyone that he cared for: Old man Hokage, Teuchi, Ayame, Iruka, Sakura, Kakashi, and even Sasuke. Then Naruto's mind transposed those happy memories onto what he had seen here in Wave Country. Tears started to fall as Naruto thought about his few precious people suffering like that. Naruto suddenly opened his eyes as he realized that he would do anything to prevent his friends from suffering like this. That was a reason to fight and kill someone else. Indeed, it was the only rational reason to fight.

Naruto slowly pulled one of his kunai from its storage pocket and brought the blade towards his right palm. Ever so slowly, Naruto cut his palm. The cut was deep enough so that his blood flowed, but not so deep as to create permanent damage on a normal person. Naruto closed his bloody palm and let a few drops of blood drip onto the pier. Then in a solemn manner he vowed, "I will never use lethal force against an opponent unless it's to protect someone."

For a few moments, Naruto just sat where he was and looked at his bloody fist. Then Naruto slowly opened his right hand and to his surprise a small scar was starting to form. Usually small cuts like that wouldn't leave a mark. It was the only real benefit that Naruto got from holding the Kyuubi. So why was this scar not being healed? Personally, Naruto didn't really care whether or not that cut scarred. If it didn't then oh well, but if it did scar then it would serve as a reminder of his oath.

After that Naruto stood up and headed towards Tazuna's house. For a second Naruto thought about joining in the celebratory feast that the bridge builder was throwing, but then Naruto decided against it. There was a major reason why Naruto didn't want to join in the party, besides the fact that he never really felt comfortable around large crowds of people. That fight on the bridge had made Naruto realize that he still had a long way to go before he could match Old man Hokage or even Kakashi. If Naruto was going to protect everyone that he cared about, he'd have to train a lot harder. That meant he needed to break out those books again and study them.

Back at the Iruka had always said that the worst thing for a ninja was to be blind to one's own weaknesses. Naruto had always wondered, when he wasn't ditching school that is, what Iruka meant by that. Now that Naruto knew exactly what Iruka meant, he was determined to correct his faults. Even if it meant studying, Naruto would take it like a man and study those books.

* * *

Omake:

Jiraiya set several scrolls down near Naruto and started to chuckle. Once Naruto started to read these scrolls, the brat would be ready to be his apprentice.

In the morning Naruto woke up and looked at the scrolls that littered all around him. Naruto's curiosity got the better of him and so he picked one of the scrolls up. He then broke the seal and read, "1001 to peek on babes without getting caught? Kakashi! This is NOT what I meant when I said I wanted more training!"


	2. Chapter 2

Sarutobi glared at Kakashi from across his desk and slowly said, "You mean to tell me Hatake, that you agreed to lead a team of green genin on an A-class mission? Not only that, but you failed to call for reinforcements or establish a proper watch? And that's not even getting to the bottom of your incompetence! Introducing tree climbing exercises after a month of active duty? What have you been doing this past month with your team, watching porn?"

The old leader then folded his hands and said in a neutral tone that sent shivers of fear down Kakashi's back, "What you did on that mission Hatake was inexcusable." Sarutobi pulled out a half-inch thick folder and placed it on his desk. In that same chilling and yet neutral tone, Sarutobi continued on. "Do you know what this is Hatake? This is a detailed record of everything your team did since it encountered the Demon Brothers to the time your team left Wave. There are even word for word records of your team's conversations, particularly your orders and your training in this report."

Kakashi somehow gave the impression that he was blushing, even through no one could see it because of his mask. Oh, Kakashi knew that he'd get into a little trouble considering how the mission had gone. However, he had never expected to be in this much trouble. The old, usually friendly, Hokage was really cooking Kakashi's goose over this mission.

Sarutobi then sighed and said, "I see now that it was a mistake having you command a genin team. You are obviously incapable of handling the responsibilities that are required of a genin instructor." He then pulled out a small scroll and started writing on it while continuing on, "As of this moment, Jonin Kakashi Hatake, you are no longer the instructor for genin Team 7. You are to tell your former students to report to my office in one hour so that they may meet their new instructor."

Even though Kakashi didn't show it, he felt like someone had pounded a dull, rusty spike through his chest. He was removed from his team for negligence; that was a dishonor that would stay with him for the rest of his life. It was one thing to be reassigned because you were needed elsewhere or you couldn't work well with your teammates, but removal was something totally different. It meant that you screwed up so badly that you weren't ever going to get a second chance.

With only a dumb nod, Kakashi left Sarutobi's office and dragged himself through the streets. How had it come to this? Slowly as Kakashi wandered towards Team 7's training ground he thought back over everything Team 7 had been through. Even if Kakashi didn't want to admit it, he'd been happier since he took control of Team 7 then he'd been in years. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura, all three of them had grown on Kakashi. They were like the nephews and niece that he never had.

And now, it was gone. Kakashi realized all too late that he'd been so wrapped up in his past, that he hadn't paid attention to the presence. By morning the past, he'd been destroying his future. If only he'd been training Team 7 instead of mourning his comrades passing. What would Obito and Minato think of the fact that he had put their only living relatives in jeopardy because he failed to train them properly? Minato would have called in for reinforcements the second he knew that the situation had escalated beyond what the team could be expected to handle. As for Obito, he'd probably get on Kakashi's case about mourning everyone for so long.

Eventually, Kakashi made it to where Team 7 was waiting for him. Sasuke was sitting on a tree branch staring out at the small stream nearby. Sakura was lying against the bridge post staring at Sasuke. Naruto was surprisingly sitting next to the tree trunk almost perpendicular to Sasuke and reading a scroll. After looking at this bittersweet scene for a moment with the Sharingan to engrave it into his memory, Kakashi slowly walked into his soon to be former students' view.

Normally, Naruto would have dropped his scroll at this point and start pestering Kakashi about either learning something new or about getting a cool mission. The boy had matured a good deal since the mission to Wave, but that maturity only came out when Naruto was actually training or on a mission. Even during the missions, Naruto's newfound maturity only showed itself by the reduction of his complaints about said missions. Naruto looked at Kakashi and inquired, "What's wrong Kakashi?"

Even though Naruto didn't mean to, the innocent question was like someone was twisting the knife that Kakashi felt was lodged in his heart. Kakashi forced himself to look at his former students and say, "I've, I've been relieved of command for Team 7. You three are to report to the Hokage's office immediately where you will meet your new commander and instructor. Listen to him or her and follow the directions you are given. Also, remember that those who don't follow the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are lower then trash. It has been a pleasure teaching the three of you and I wish you well in your future careers."

* * *

Back in Sarutobi's office, an ANBU appeared before the old Hokage kneeling. The ANBU bowed his head and said, "You called for me Lord Hokage."

Sarutobi nodded his head and firmly said, "Take off your mask Tenzou. As of this moment you are on permanent stand down from the ANBU. As of this moment you are Team 7's Jonin instructor. You will carry out this task until all members of Team 7 have achieved the rank of Chunin. After that, you may return to the ANBU or be a regular Jonin."

Tenzou nodded his head, removed his ANBU mask, and quickly pocketed it. He then stood up and said, "I will try to validate your trust in me Lord Hokage. But I have to wonder, wasn't it a little drastic to remove Kakashi from his post? After all, no one was seriously harmed by the mission and there are times when missions escalate beyond what is expected."

Sarutobi sighed and said, "While it is true that missions can get out of hand, what happened in Wave was inexcusable. Kakashi should have called for reinforcements as soon as he realized that Zabuza would return. Wave is close enough that the message could be sent and the reinforcements would arrive well before Zabuza recovered. Genin have no reason to be in the middle of an A-class mission; except in times of war. What's more, the lack of training that Kakashi gave his team beforehand shows that he hasn't been taking his responsibility as seriously as he should. I trust that you will not make the same mistakes Tenzou."

Before Tenzou could respond, the office door swung open and Team 7 barged into the room. Naruto was the first through the door and he practically screamed out, "Hey Old Man! What's the deal about Kakashi not being our teacher?" Naturally, Sasuke and Sakura were slightly embarrassed with how Naruto addressed Sarutobi. However, they both had similar sediments.

After a brief chuckle escaped Sarutobi's lips, he stated, "Kakashi has been removed as you instructor because of some serious mistakes in judgment that he made during your last mission. Try to remember what Kakashi did wrong, so that if any of you become Jonin instructors you will know what not to do. Tenzou here will be your new Jonin instructor. I expect that you three will show him the respect and obedience that he deserves."

Tenzou slowly looked at his three knew students memorizing their faces. After their faces were burned into his memory, Tenzou said, "As Lord Hokage said I am Tenzou, you're new instructor. Since you are unused to leader changes yet, I shall allow you to have this afternoon off. I urge you to take this time to review your current skills in independent training. Tomorrow you will report to Team 7's usual training ground at 7 am will your full mission gear. That is all."

Sasuke was the first member of Team 7 to respond to Tenzou's order by simply turning around and walking out the door. Sakura quickly followed after Sasuke, but not before politely saying goodbye to Tenzou. However, Naruto stood where he was questioningly looking at Tenzou.

For a second, Tenzou wondered why Naruto was staring at him. Then it came to him and the former ANBU politely stated, "Do not worry Naruto. I bare you no ill will because of the Kyuubi." As soon as Naruto heard that, the young man's face regained its normal smile and Naruto left the office.

Sarutobi smiled at the scene and said, "You may not realize it Tenzou, but you just earned yourself a special place in Naruto's heart. The boy may be impatient when it comes to subtle things; however, he's quite good once he's shown a little attention and how to do something. If I may offer you some advice, don't reveal that you have the ability to suppress the Kyuubi's chakra; even though the Shodai's technique is not as effective without the necklace. So far, Naruto hasn't shown the ability to draw on the Kyuubi's power and to tell him that it could get out of control would cause more harm then good."

Tenzou nodded his head and said, "I understand and agree Lord Hokage."

* * *

As 7 am neared, the genin in Team 7 approached the training ground. To their surprise, Tenzou was already at the training ground waiting for them. It just served to remind the members of team that they weren't dealing with Kakashi anymore. Tenzou nodded approvingly when everyone was in front of him with one minute to spare. He then calmly said, "Remember to always arrive at or a little before you are supposed to arrive. Arriving too early or late can lead to major, possibly fatal, problems on a mission. Now then, I want you all to sit down in front of me."

Once the genins were sitting down, Tenzou continued on. "There are three things that a Ninja must know if he or she is to successfully complete a mission. First, you must be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Without an honest understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, you will overestimate your abilities which most likely will result in you being killed on a mission. Second, you must be aware of your teammates' strengths and weaknesses. Without this knowledge, you cannot know how your teammates can help with the mission. Finally, you must know how to work with your teammates. Without this knowledge, your team will not be as effective as it can be."

"Since some of you may still overestimate your skills, or underestimate your teammates' skills, we will first focus on becoming aware of our own abilities and deficiencies. Each of you will spar with me using the full extent of your abilities. Meanwhile your teammates will watch the spars. After each spar you will give your assessment of your skills, then your teammates will give their assessments, and finally I will give my assessment. It will be your responsibility to learn from these assessments and see where you are mistaken in your judgment."

Tenzou looked at the trio and calmly stated, "Since Sasuke was the Rookie of the Year he will have to spar with me first. Remember Naruto and Sakura, you must pay attention to this spar and be honest with your assessments." Said students nodded their heads while Sasuke got up and headed a little ways away into the grassy meadow. Once Tenzou was sure that his other students understood their instructions, he approached Sasuke and the spar commenced.

At first the match, which was almost strictly taijutsu, was even between Tenzou and Sasuke. In fact, Sakura actually thought that Sasuke was just as good in taijutsu as Tenzou. However, Naruto was far more critical about Sasuke's match and quickly caught on to what was happening. Tenzou restricted himself so that he was fighting on Sasuke's skill level. After a few minutes, Tenzou started to release some of his self-imposed restrictions.

With those restrictions removed, the spare took on a whole new dimension. Naruto couldn't help being amazed at what he was seeing. Sakura couldn't help being shocked by what she was seeing. Sasuke couldn't help being furious at what was happening to him. Tenzou was slowly, relentlessly taking control of the fight. The team's instructor seemed to be in control of every aspect of the fight. In fact, it was like Tenzou knew where Sasuke would be and what move he would use.

Very quickly Sasuke got fed up with Tenzou controlling the fight and launched a Fire style: Fireball. Tenzou calmly stood in front of the fireball and created an Earth style: Mud wall to block Sasuke's attack. On the sidelines, Naruto and Sakura breathlessly watched as their teammates traded low level ninjutsu. After a few moments something, strange started to happen. Sasuke kept on firing his jutsus every which way except for where Naruto, Sakura, and Tenzou were. Tenzou then signaled Naruto and Sakura to be quiet which made them realize that Sasuke was under a genjutsu.

Eventually Tenzou felt that Sasuke had embarrassed himself enough and calmly pinned Sasuke to the ground. He then led Sasuke over to where the other members of Team 7 were at, and had Sasuke sit down. Once Sasuke was sitting down Tenzou said, "So Sasuke, what was you're mistakes in the spar?"

Sasuke moodily muttered, "Letting you get behind me."

Naturally, Naruto jumped in, "Hey bastard, you forgot that you were trapped in a genjutsu. Also, there's the fact that Tenzou completely owned you in taijutsu!"

And following the laws of Team 7's thermodynamics, Sakura promptly bashed Naruto's skull. While Sakura was removing her fist from Naruto's head, she said, "Don't speak to Sasuke like that Naruto! Although Naruto was partially right Sasuke, you were caught in a genjutsu for a while."

Tenzou nodded his head and calmly explained, "Over all you did fairly well for a genin Sasuke. However, there are a few things you need to work on. First off, you started to underestimate my skill in taijutsu. Often, enemy ninjas will hold back some of their skill to lure the enemy into false confidence. Second, there were a few spots in your taijutsu where you were slow in your defense. It's obvious that you're counting on the Sharingan to tell you when to protect those areas. However, you don't have the Sharingan yet and so you shouldn't use that taijutsu style. Finally, your ability to detect subtle genjutsu isn't that good. Once again you are obviously expecting to use the Sharingan to detect those genjutsu and you should stop that."

Sasuke silently ground his teeth together because of Tenzou's assessment as Sakura started her spar. How could Tenzou even suggest that he not use the traditional Uchiha taijutsu style? Tenzou was practically saying to Sasuke that the avenger wouldn't develop the Sharingan! The mere insinuation that Sasuke might not develop the Sharingan was tantamount to blasphemy for the young man. All of his forefathers to his great-great-grandfather Madara and beyond had wielded the Sharingan, so Sasuke knew that eventually he'd command the Sharingan as well. It was all a matter of time.

Although Sasuke had missed Sakura's spar because of his brooding, he really didn't miss much. Even Naruto, as much as he hated to, had to admit that Sakura's spar was pathetic. Sure she gave it her all, but there's only so much a person can do with poor physical conditioning, substandard taijutsu form, small chakra reserves, and a very limited arsenal of jutsus.

Once Tenzou finished critiquing Sakura, it was Naruto's turn. As Naruto approached Tenzou, he thought about Sasuke's and Sakura's fights. One thing that was obvious to Naruto was the fact that Tenzou was tough; possibly even tougher then Zabuza or Kakashi. How was he supposed to defeat someone like that by himself? Naruto didn't want to admit it, but Wave had showed Naruto that he wasn't as great as he had thought.

This minuscule bit of maturity gave Naruto a flash of inspiration. How was he able to beat or at least weaken stronger ninjas' in the past? Simple, he had been an unpredictable pain in the butt. Maybe some of those same tricks could work on Tenzou? After all, Sasuke went by the book and Tenzou soundly dominated that spar.

Tenzou fixed his eyes on Naruto and wondered what was going through the blonde's head. After a moment, Tenzou was unable to get a good read on Naruto, but he decided to start the spar. Naturally, Naruto's opening move was to spam the field with shadow clones. Many of the clones charged for Tenzou and those were methodically destroyed. So many clones were destroyed that Tenzou disappeared from Sasuke's and Sakura's view in a cloud of smoke. The only way Sasuke and Sakura knew that Tenzou was still slaughtering the clones was the loud poof sound that each clone made as it was destroyed.

Once Tenzou had taken care of the last shadow clone that had attempted to blitz him, the new instructor took a defensive stance. Since Tenzou had to do a few 'catch Naruto' missions when he was younger, he knew better then to just charge out of the smoke trying to find the boy. Unlike Sasuke, Naruto would likely use this time to set traps to cause problems. Tenzou knew that when Naruto took things seriously, the boy could do some pretty impressive things. The only question Tenzou had at the moment was how seriously was Naruto taking this spar?

As soon as the smoke cloud dissipated, Tenzou got his answer. Gale wind palms and several Wind style: Great Breakthroughs were shot at Tenzou from practically every angle imaginable. Tenzou calmly jumped high into air and discreetly created a set of wooden kunai. In a twisting manner, Tenzou let the kunai fly and each one struck its target. Amid the pops of the dissipated shadow clones, there was a single thud.

With Naruto's location revealed, Tenzou homed in on the spot like a missile. Naruto's momentary surprise at being hit by a blunt wooden kunai was all the time that Tenzou needed. The student and the master commenced their one on one taijutsu spar with Naruto frantically avoiding Tenzou's strikes. Rolling, twisting, jumping, it didn't matter to Naruto what he did as long as he avoided Tenzou's fists. A couple of times Naruto tried to create some shadow clones, but Tenzou never let Naruto have enough time to finish the jutsu.

After a few minutes, Tenzou had found out what he needed and forced Naruto into submission. He then led Naruto back to where Sasuke and Sakura were sitting. Once Naruto rejoined his teammates, Tenzou said, "No then, what do you have to say about Naruto's performance?"

Sasuke simply stated, "Pathetic, as usual." Sakura was hesitant in responding for a second, but then she quickly agreed with Sasuke. Naturally, Naruto started to pout because Sakura thought he was pathetic.

Tenzou sighed and replied, "You two weren't paying enough attention to the spar. Naruto's initial moves were fairly decent. His only real problem in that part was the fact that he didn't coordinate the attack with the shadow clones too well. On the other hand, Naruto's taijutsu was not as good as I had hoped it would be. The major problem that Naruto has in that area is the fact that he is unsuited for the Tiger Style that is taught at the Ninja Academy. One of the other former academy styles would be more suitable for Naruto."

Sakura interrupted at this point and said, "But Tenzou, there's only one taijutsu style that's taught at the Academy. What do you mean by former academy styles?"

Both Sasuke and Naruto focused on Tenzou as he said, "Five years ago the High Council overrode Lord Hokage and had a series of Educational reforms put in place in the Academy. Some of the things, like removing the option of early graduation, were needed. Sadly, the educational reforms also removed many things from the academy so that everything was much more unified. Among the subjects 'reformed' were the taijutsu classes. Previously, there had been five styles taught at the Academy: Tiger Style, Panda Style, Turtle Style, Humming Bird Style, and Fox Style. Ever since those reforms, the only style taught at the Academy has been the Tiger Style. Of course, members of ninja clans are allowed to substitute their clan style for the Tiger Style taught at the Academy."

"Tiger Style is a poor taijutsu style for Naruto because it doesn't make use of his natural agility. Although the Humming Bird Style would make use of Naruto's agility, Naruto wouldn't do to well with the precision accuracy that style requires. The Panda Style and the Turtle Style are even more unsuited for Naruto then the first two because one is a grappling style and the other is a very defensive style. Therefore, Naruto should learn the Fox Style because it combines his direct attitude with his natural agility."

When Tenzou first mentioned that there was a Fox Style, Naruto immediately became nervous. If things were going like Naruto was suspecting they were going, the resentful villagers were about to have another thing they would claim proved he was the Kyuubi. Sure the Fox Style was a style that was apparently part of Konoha, but when did rational thought ever stop morons from acting?

However, as Tenzou explained the other styles, Naruto began to lose some of his nervousness at the thought of possibly learning the Fox Style. Obviously, Tenzou was really trying to help Naruto out by picking a better taijutsu style. Sure the name was probably going to give Naruto problems, but he wasn't about to complain. Naruto decided then and there that he'll follow Tenzou's instructions as best he could. It was only fair considering that Tenzou was trying hard to teach him.

* * *

Sarutobi was sitting at his desk when his old teammates walked through the door. The old Hokage stopped working when he saw his old teammates and said, "Koharu, Homura, what can I do for you two today?"

Koharu politely, stiffly said, "You could start off by explaining why Kakashi Hatake was removed from command of Team 7."

This caused Sarutobi to narrow his eyes and he replied, "I don't see how that decision requires any explanation. Jiraiya's report clearly shows that Kakashi is not suited for commanding a genin squad. This, plus the fact that Team 7's growth as a team was stunted by Kakashi half-hearted attempts at training, left me with no choice except for removing Kakashi from the team."

Homura gave his old friend a polite nod and then rebutted, "While Kakashi's behavior during Team 7's recent mission leaves much to be desired, both Koharu and I have to question whether it was a wise maneuver to fully remove Kakashi from Team 7. After all, he is the only one in the village who can train certain vital skills to the members of Team 7."

Sarutobi shook his head and stated, "I will not restore Kakashi to Team 7 simply because of his transplanted Sharingan eye. The Sharingan is a tool, no more, no less. Besides, we don't even know for sure if Sasuke will activate the Sharingan. Not every Uchiha was able to activate the Sharingan, so it isn't a done deal that Sasuke will develop the Sharingan as well. Even if Sasuke activates the Sharingan, he has his clan scrolls to train with. Should Sasuke prove unable to use his clan scrolls, then Kakashi can give him a few pointers."

Both of Sarutobi's teammates had to admit that the old monkey had backed them into a corner. They had been sure that they could convince Sarutobi to at least reassign Kakashi to Team 7 as an assistant instructor. After all, it was imperative that Konoha regain the Sharingan as a viable bloodline quickly. Since Kakashi was the only person in the village with a Sharingan eye, he obviously was the only person who could teach Sasuke about the Sharingan.

However, Sarutobi's words now had the two elders worried about more then just getting Kakashi back on Team 7. What if Sarutobi was correct? What if Sasuke didn't develop the Sharingan? The two elders suddenly became very nervous as they remembered that the chance of activating the Sharingan drastically reduced for each generation that didn't activate it. What if the Sharingan became lost?

Sarutobi saw his teammates discomfort and could barely keep himself from smiling. It might be juvenile of him, but Sarutobi couldn't help himself from enjoying their discomfort. While Sarutobi was amicable enough with his former teammates, there was an undercurrent of friction between him and them. For Sarutobi, the friction was because Homura and Koharu had ordered Itachi to kill all the members of the Uchiha clan. In his mind, there was absolutely no reason to order Itachi to kill every man, woman, and child in the Uchiha clan. Killing the ringleaders and main supporters of the coup would have been enough.

After letting the duo stew for a minute, Sarutobi said, "While I appreciate this visit, I'm afraid that our little chat will have to come to an end. As you know, the paperwork breeds faster then rabbits if I don't attend to it. Please come whenever you like if you discover something that needs to be brought to my attention." Koharu and Homura caught on to Sarutobi's dismissal and both of them quietly left.

* * *

Omake:

As Naruto approached Tenzou, he thought about Sasuke's and Sakura's fights. One thing that was obvious to Naruto was the fact that Tenzou was tough; possibly even tougher then Zabuza or Kakashi. How was he supposed to defeat someone like that by himself? Naruto didn't want to admit it, but Wave had showed Naruto that he wasn't as great as he had thought.

This minuscule bit of maturity gave Naruto a flash of inspiration. How was he able to beat or at least weaken stronger ninjas' in the past? Simple, he had been an unpredictable pain in the butt. Maybe some of those same tricks could work on Tenzou? After all, Sasuke went by the book and Tenzou soundly dominated that spar.

Tenzou fixed his eyes on Naruto and wondered what was going through the blonde's head. After a moment, Tenzou was unable to get a good read on Naruto, but he decided to start the spar. To Tenzou's surprise, Naruto jumped backwards and shouted out, "Shadow clone jutsu!" Before Tenzou could attack the clones, all of the clones shouted out, "Lesbian Orgy jutsu!"

It was just too much for Tenzou. All around him were dozens of different women in various intimate poses. The hospital quickly certified that he died of massive nasal hemorrhaging. After news about that got around, all of the men in Konoha treaded very carefully around Naruto.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto was sitting on top of the Yondaime's head trying to meditate and wasn't having much success. The meditation was part of the new training regime that Tenzou had installed after assessing the team. Every other day when the team wasn't on mission Naruto was supposed to spend two hours meditating. According to Tenzou, the meditation would help Naruto control his charka and help make Naruto more aware of his surroundings. Naruto chose to meditate on the Yondaime's head because Tenzou told him to find a peaceful spot when meditating and the top of the Hokage monument was a very peaceful spot.

As Naruto unsuccessfully attempted to stay still, his mind wandered over the past week. Things under Tenzou were very different then they had been under Kakashi. For one thing, Tenzou had told Team 7 upfront that they weren't going to get another mission like Wave at all. Sure there were C Rank missions in their futures, but they should expect them to be simple escort missions like the Wave mission was supposed to be. Sakura had been secretly grateful about Tenzou's announcement. However, Sasuke and Naruto had been quite upset at that news.

Once Tenzou had set Naruto and Sasuke strait the blond could see why Tenzou had come down on that point. As vexing as it was to Naruto, he wasn't fully ready for missions higher then the average C Rank mission. That had been an extremely tough pill for Naruto to swallow, but the possibility of Sakura getting hurt or killed because of going on a higher ranked mission before the team was ready forced Naruto to accept the fact.

Sasuske was another story all together. Unlike Sakura, who was worried about overstepping her limits, or Naruto, who was worried about Sakura's safety, Sasuke hadn't been able to accept the fact that Team 7 wouldn't be getting into any major fights soon. The last Uchiha was determined to awaken his Sharingan and he knew that only a life or death struggle would do that. Naruto had noticed that Sasuke had slowly been getting more and more aggressive during training. However, Naruto simply assumed that Sasuke was feeling threatened by his progress and only redoubled his efforts to outdo the last Uchiha.

In Naruto's opinion, Tenzou was a Grade A teacher. Much to Naruto's annoyance, Tenzou wasn't teaching them super cool and powerful jutsus. However, Tenzou was teaching Team 7 useful D rank jutsus and showing them how to use the lower class jutsus to wear an enemy out. Naruto's favorite memory when Tenzou was teaching the team about this was when Tenzou completely wore out Sasuke while only using the three academy jutsus and the Earth release: headhunter jutsu. It was one thing to see Tenzou beat Sasuke during that spar on the first day. But seeing Sasuke utterly humiliated like that? Now that was priceless.

However, Sasuke's defeat had also served to drive home to Naruto that he still had a long way to go. True Naruto had accepted the fact when he realized that Sakura could get hurt on a higher level mission. But it was seeing just how powerful and skillful other ninjas out there were that really forced Naruto to admit that he wasn't as great a ninja as he wanted to be. Of course, that only meant that Naruto was even more determined then ever to get better.

* * *

Two weeks after Tenzou took over Team 7, the team was walking towards the Hokage Castle when Naruto said, "Hey Tenzou! Don't ya think that we're ready for a C rank mission?" Seeing the glare Sakura was sending him, Naruto quickly amended, "It doesn't have to be a big mission. Even a delivery outside the village would work." Sasuke quietly simmered while Sakura was happy that she had gotten Naruto to cool down on potential missions.

With a faint smile on his face Tenzou said, "Be patient Naruto. Instead of asking for a C rank mission you should have asked is the team ready for one. Never go into a situation without understanding as many variables as you can. Trust me it will make things a lot easier for you in life. With all the difficulties in life we don't need to give ourselves handicaps."

Sakura looked over to Tenzou and asked, "Does that mean that we're getting a D rank mission today?"

Tenzou calmly said, "It might and it might not. I only told Naruto that he was asking the wrong question. Never assume anything Sakura. As a ninja, you all must carefully examine everything, even words, that you encounter on your missions. This is especially true whenever you are dealing with a political leader. Sometimes you might have a mission where you are part of a diplomatic team. In that case you have to especially pay close attention to what everyone says because words can be extremely slippery."

Naruto quickly asked, "So, does that mean that we will or we won't be getting a C rank mission Tenzou?"

Very quickly Tenzou replied, "What it means Naruto is very simple: just wait and see. Remember, one of the biggest things that you need to work on is being patient. You'll find out what type of mission we'll be getting very soon. Until then, just be quiet and pay attention to your surroundings." With that said Team 7 quietly entered the Hokage Castle and headed to the mission assignment room.

When Team 7 got to the room, Sarutobi looked over at Tenzou and said, "Tell me Tenzou. What mission level would you prefer for your team to take today? We have got a lot of customers today so there are some decent pickings."

The genin trio immediately turned to look at Tenzou and hear his answer. After a moment of deliberation Tenzou said, "Team 7 is ready for a simple C rank mission Lord Hokage."

Sarutobi nodded his head and said, "I have just such a mission. A professor at the Fire University is taking a few of his students on a dig at one of the abandoned cities. He has requested a ninja escort and guard for six weeks while he and his students have their dig. It's a long mission of a C rank, but everything checks out. Do you want this mission?"

Naruto really wanted to scream at Tenzou to take the mission. So what if it was guard duty while a bunch of geeks dug up rocks? It was a lot better then picking up garbage or chasing after Tora. However, Naruto was able to keep his mouth shut. Tenzou had been stressing patience and Naruto was sure that Tenzou would nix the mission if he spoke now. There was no way that Naruto was going to blow it and get stuck with a D rank mission if he could avoid it.

Actually, it was Naruto's semi-surprising maturity that made up Tenzou's mind. Tenzou gave Naruto one last glance and then he said, "Team 7 accepts the mission Lord Hokage. When are we to leave?"

While making the necessary notation, Sarutobi replied, "Professor Sanada is planning on leaving for the dig in two days. Team 7 will be taken off the mission roster until then so that you can make the necessary preparations for the mission." Sarutobi then handed Tenzou a copy of the mission request and politely dismissed the team.

* * *

Naruto reported to the inn where Professor Sanada and the rest of the professor's team were staying at about a half hour before the mission was supposed to start. Professor Sanada's expedition consisted of the professor, his daughter Mitsuki, her fiancé Kazuki, and two of Kazuki's classmates Toji and Kaworu. Naruto decided to start up a conversation with the guys while the professor and Mitsuki were going over some last minute checks. "So Kazuki, what's this dig about?"

Kazuki looked down at his quart-sized guard and replied, "Well Naruto, Professor Sanada teaches techno-archeology at the Fire University. This expedition is to see what we can find a pre-Six Realms Sage era town that was recently discovered." Seeing the look of confusion on Naruto's face Kazuki explained, "About four hundred years ago the world was very different. Advance technology that could do things that seem unbelievable to us existed all throughout the world. Then there came the Great Cataclysm and the era of the Six Realms Sage. Techno-archeologists like Professor Sanada go to the ruins of these ancient cities and try to recover technology. That's how many of the 'modern' conveniences come about."

This caught Naruto's interest and he asked, "So what are you hoping to find Kazuki? What are you looking for?"

The college student smiled and said, "We don't have anything in peculiar that we're looking for. In this field you have to take what you can find. Personally, I'm hoping to find a car in good preservation. A car is sort of like a cart that doesn't need any animals or people to pull it. We've found plenty of records about cars, but no one's ever found one in good enough condition to reconstruct a working replica."

Mitsuki interrupted Kazuki and Naruto's conversation at this moment by saying, "Kazuki dear, would you please help me over here. It seems that father thought it was okay to just pack ramen for the expedition." Naruto quietly let Kazuki leave the table and go help his fiancée. Ramen was Naruto's favorite food, but even he knew you shouldn't have it everyday. Despite the rumors at school, Naruto only had ramen two or three times a week. True he'd wolf down several bowels each time, but that was neither here nor there.

Naruto tried to strike up a conversation with Toji and Kaworu, but he didn't get very far on that score. Toji was a jock who was at the academy because it was needed in order to become an officer in the army. The only reason why Toji was on this dig was to help pull up his grade in Professor Sanada's class. Kaworu on the other hand was simply hard to talk to. Apparently the white-haired boy was even more sociality clueless then Naruto and like to refer to music that hadn't be widely played for hundreds of years.

The rest of Team 7 walked in just as Mitsuki and Kazuki were rapping up their argument with the professor. Naruto looked at his teammate and said, "You might want to sit down. It seems crazy professor only bought ramen for the expedition's food supplies. His daughter and future son-in-law are really laying into him and will probably be going out to get some more supplies soon. I think we've got an hour or so before they'll be ready to leave."

Surprisingly Sakura stated, "It's amazing that you're being so calm about this Naruto. I have expected you to be jumping to Professor Sanada's defense given how much you like ramen."

Now that comment really hurt Naruto. He thought that Sakura was more observant then that. After all, Sakura's intelligence was one of the things that Naruto found so attractive about her. Naruto's face quickly switched to his pouting mode and he replied, "Sheesh Sakura. I thought you would have realized that I only pack two or three instant containers of ramen for long missions."

Tenzou couldn't help feeling a little ashamed at Sakura's actions. She should have known that about Naruto by now. It wasn't even some big secret; Sakura would have known that if she paid a little bit of attention to Naruto during mealtimes. It looked like he would have to put her through some more awareness training.

Sasuke stood in the background with his typical moody game face on. He wasn't too thrilled to be on this mission sense the chance of facing opponents like Zabuza were extremely low. What made the mission even harder for Sasuke to stand was the fact that the professor was apparently an idiot. This was going to be a long, dull mission.

* * *

The town that Professor Sanada's expedition was after couldn't have been in a more desolate region of Fire Country. Twenty miles northeast of the Wind Country border, Team 7 had to deal with the full front of the infamous Wind Wastelands. Supposedly, the arid conditions and the rocky walls around the ghost town would preserve some of the more sensitive artifacts the expedition was looking for.

After the first few days of guard duty, Naruto was bored out of his mind. Staring out at endless sand is extremely dull. Naruto couldn't do any extensive ninjutsu or taijutsu training during the time he wasn't on watch because Tenzou didn't want any member of the team worn out if someone were to attack. Sure the chance of someone attacking the expedition was almost zero, but those were Tenzou's orders.

Unlike Sakura, Naruto hadn't brought anything to relax with. All Naruto had were the scrolls that he had been given in Wave. Those scrolls were extremely interesting, but after a while they became monotonous and Naruto simply created a bunch of shadow clones to practice the basic fuuinjutsu that were listed in the scroll and some basic chakra control exercises. Sakura and Sasuke would try to spend the least amount of time that they could with Naruto when they were off duty. Sure they were good associates, possibly even friends, but they didn't want to spend all their time with Naruto. Occasionally Naruto would talk with Tenzou about one thing or another. However, that still left a good deal of time where Naruto had to keep himself busy.

This left Naruto with only one way to keep himself busy: meditation. For hours on end Naruto was sit on the same rock and simply meditate. One of Naruto's teammates would pull Naruto out of his meditation if it was time to eat or it was his shift. Other then that, the other members of Team 7 would let Naruto meditate. After all, they didn't want one of the other members of the team disturbing them while they were relaxing. Well, Sakura wouldn't mind if it was Sasuke who bothered her, but that wasn't about to happen.

Something unique happened to Naruto three days before it was time to leave the dig. Naruto had been sitting on his rock like he usually did. However, the next second later Naruto found himself sitting in a pool of water. Opening his eyes, Naruto blurted out, "Hey what gives! This isn't my rock." Instead of sitting on the rock facing the desert, Naruto was sitting in waist deep water in a sewer.

Quickly standing up, Naruto muttered to himself, "Alright where am I? There's no way I could just fall into a sewer without hearing the ground collapse beneath me. Besides, there's no hole in the roof. So then, what does that leave?" Naruto's eyes widened as he remembered Tenzou mentioning something about a mindscape when he explained meditation. Letting out a loud groan, Naruto said, "Great, just great. I've got a sewer for a mindscape! Why couldn't it be Gramps' office or Ichiraku Ramen?"

After a few moments of ranting, Naruto calmed down and tried to think about his situation. Tenzou had said that a person's mindscape was affected by things in their lives. Naruto's eyes widened when he remembered about the Kyuubi. If he was here in his mind, then wouldn't the demon's seal be around here somewhere as well. For a second, Naruto seriously considered trying to leave his mindscape. However, there was a feeling in Naruto's gut telling him that he needed to look around this place.

In the end, Naruto decided to follow his gut. Naruto walked through a labyrinthine maze of sewage corridors and pipes until he finally reached the imposing iron gates of the Kyuubi's prison. Even with the dim lighting, Naruto could see the sleeping form of the Kyuubi. Its body radiated power even when it was asleep. Naruto just stood in front of the cage looking at the fox and trying to figure out what to do.

The decision was taken out of Naruto's hands when the Kyuubi opened its blood red eyes and growled out, "Why do you disturb my slumber foolish mortal?"

Naruto quickly shot back, "I was meditating and I ended up in this dump. And don't get all high and mighty with me; you're as mortal as I am."

Baring its teeth, the Kyuubi sent a blast of its hot breath at Naruto. The breath wasn't burning, but it definitely was hot. Naruto stayed right where he was even though he had to shield his eyes with his arm. After a few seconds, the Kyuubi stopped trying to blow Naruto away and started to chuckle. "Well, well, well, it seems that the little ape child has some substance to him. But don't think that impresses me brat, I've eaten dozens of rabbits with more substance then you. Why did you enter my domain?"

Naturally, Naruto took offense at being compared to a rabbit and said, "Listen Fuzzball, I don't care what you think of me. However, I'd play nice if I were you. After all, you're just a squatter here and I'm the land lord."

The Kyuubi quickly responded by saying, "Do you really think I care about what you think mortal? You are nothing. Your village is nothing. In fact, your entire race is nothing compared to me. This prison will not hold me forever. Nothing can hold me forever, not even the gods can hold me. When I get out, you will be the first mortal that I kill."

Instead of running, Naruto just stood there with his arms folded and he replied, "Get real Fuzzball. If you could have escaped you would have long ago. There's no way you'd tolerate so many people back in Konoha thinking that I'm you. I bet that really gets to you; people thinking that big, bad Kyuubi is just a prankster who graduated last in his class. You're probably just as angry about it as I am."

For a second, Naruto thought that the Kyuubi would roar out in rage at what he had said. However, all the Kyuubi did was let out a low, continuous growl. Then the Kyuubi demanded, "What do you want brat? Even an insignificant mortal like you has to do other things then feast your eyes on me."

Naruto looked the Kyuubi in the eye, folded his arms around his chest, and then proclaimed, "Let's get one thing strait Fuzzball. I hate you being in my gut just as much as you hate being here. However, you and I are stuck with each other until we both kick the bucket. Is there an agreement that we can make so that are situation is less intolerable for the both of us?"

The Kyuubi stared strait at Naruto as if he was judging his container. After Naruto didn't turn away, the Kyuubi grudgingly admitted, "An accord can be reached. However, such things are not to be taken lightly. Our lives may be bound, but I would rather die then see you make a mockery of my name. Prove that you are worthy brat and I will deal with you."

While that was better than Naruto expected, he was still quite annoyed with how the Kyuubi was talking to him. Naruto wanted to tell the Kyuubi where to put it right then and there. However, Naruto held his tongue and tried to figure out what he should say. Old Man always told Naruto that he had to deal with annoying people as Hokage. What was the difference between dealing with a snobbish noble and dealing with an imprisoned demon? Naruto inquired, "How do I prove that I am 'worthy' of making a deal with you. Moreover, how do I know you won't backstab me? You're a trickster after all."

Almost instantly the Kyuubi replied, "I require two things of you mortal. First, you shall not attempt to draw on my chakra until we reach an agreement. It is mine and I will not deal with a thief. Second, do not come to my prison again until you have become a true Sage. If you do these two things then you will have proved your worth to me. As proof of my sincerity, I'll allow the seal to draw twice the amount of energy from me to heal your body. Understand this mortal, you have only one chance. Fail this test and I will never allow you to try again. Moreover, I'll do everything in my power to insure that you die."

Naruto wasn't completely sure if the Kyuubi really would try to get him kill. However, Naruto knew that he had to accept the Kyuubi's terms. The Kyuubi, even though Naruto didn't want to admit it, could be a great benefit to him in battle. Sure it was a literal deal with the devil, but Naruto wouldn't mind making the deal if it helped him protect innocents. With a confident grin on his face, Naruto looked up and stated, "You've got yourself a deal Fuzzball. Get ready to go to the bargaining table because I won't fail your test."

* * *

Tenzou was walking near Naruto and suddenly stopped in his tracks. Thanks to Hashirama's infused DNA, Tenzou was extremely sensitive to demonic chakra and instantly detected the rising levels of demonic chakra emanating from Naruto. Instantly Tenzou prepared to use Mokoton in order to control Naruto. However, the rising demonic chakra abruptly stopped. The demonic chakra was only double the typical background level of demonic chakra that Naruto produced.

What did this mean? Tenzou honestly couldn't make heads or tails of it. The amount of background demonic chakra Naruto produced wouldn't just spontaneously change. Someone, or something, had to be behind this. The fact that the background demonic chakra was exactly twice as large as it was a few moments ago only confirmed Tenzou's suspicions. Not even Tsunade would bet that this was all coincidence. Tenzou's eyes narrowed and he tried to decide what he should do. Eventually, he decided to wait and see what Naruto had to say.

Naruto opened his eyes a few seconds after Tenzou made his decision. The blond ninja looked at his teacher and asked, "Is everything okay, Tenzou?"

Tenzou nodded his head and replied, "Something is bothering me Naruto. The amount of demonic chakra you radiate just doubled a few minutes ago. What did you do to cause this?"

With hand in the cookie jar look, Naruto answered, "It's an interesting story. You see, I was meditating since everything else is so boring when I accidentally went into my mindscape. While I was there, I met the Kyuubi in his cell. After a few minutes of egging each other on, he made an offer. He would be willing to make a deal with me if I become a true sage and don't take any of his chakra until we make the deal. Since I didn't want to be left high and dry, I got him to put up doubling my healing abilities so that I know that he'll hold up his end of the bargain. Now all I need to do is become a true sage and I can get the Kyuubi to make a deal with me."

This wasn't the sort of situation that Tenzou was expecting. Part of Tenzou wanted to scold Naruto for being willing to trust the Kyuubi. However, another part of Tenzou couldn't help agreeing with Naruto. It seemed that the Kyuubi was holding its end of the bargain. Finally, Tenzou made up his mind and said, "Do you even know what a true sage is Naruto?"

Naruto looked down at his feet and said, "Ah, not exactly Tenzou. Alright, I don't have a clue what a Sage is. I figured that you knew Tenzou. You do know what a sage is right?"

Tenzou sighed and replied, "Yes I know what a sage, and a true sage for that matter, is. However, I'm not going to tell you just yet Naruto. One of the key things a ninja needs is the ability to gather as much information as he can and make a rational decision. You're getting better at this Naruto, but this situation shows that you've still got a long way to go. Don't bother to try and find out what a true sage is since that knowledge is restricted to Jonin level."

Naruto's shoulders dropped and he said, "So I have to a Jonin before I can make the Kyuubi pay up?"

After thinking it over for a second, Tenzou said, "Possibly, possibly not. It may be possible to get you clearance to know what a true sage is since being a true sage is one of the Kyuubi's conditions before the demon will make a deal with you. However, just knowing what a true sage is won't be enough Naruto. A person can't just become a sage like a person can choose to become a ninja. Otherwise, we'd just have sages as ninjas would be obsolete. Don't worry about it for now Naruto. Just concentrate on getting stronger on your own abilities."

There was a moment of silence as Naruto thought about what Tenzou had told him. Then Naruto gave his typical grin and said, "Just wait and see Tenzou. I'll become the best ninja ever and it won't be because of Fuzzball."

* * *

Sarutobi held a meeting about two weeks after Team 7 got back from the dig for all the team leaders of genin teams. The old Hokage looked around at his subordinates faces and he said, "Well then everyone. As you all know, the Chunin Exams will be held here in Konoha this time. Konoha must make a strong showing in this exam since we are hosting it. This is especially true because of the Team Utatane incident last time in Kursa. If a similar incident happens again then we will lose potential customers."

Team Utatane left a bad taste in may Jonin's mouths and was a very sore subject among the members of Konoha's High Council. Ieyasu Utatane, Koharu Utatane's only son, had entered his genin team into the Chunin Exams last time. All three of Ieyasu's students had been from prominent clans in the High Council. Sadly, all three students had been killed in the Finals. What made the team members' deaths even worse for Konoha was the fact that all three died within five minutes of their matches starting and they were the only deaths in the final round for that exam. Needless to say, that debacle had caused a hit in many people's confidence about Konoha ninjas.

To everyone's surprise, Kurenai stepped forward and said, "I nominate my three genin students to take the Chunin exams. Each of them has shown sufficient growth and maturity while under my command. They have earned the right to enter the exam."

Asuma then added fuel to the bonfire by saying, "I also nominate my genin students for the exam. They also have earned a shot at the exams. Not too sure if they will be promoted, but I figure it will be a good experience for them."

Despite proper decorum, most of the people in Sarutobi's office started mumbling to each other and questioning the duo's judgment. A few were even trying to say that Team 8 and Team 10 couldn't compete in the exam. Finally Sarutobi had enough and he ordered, "Quiet down everyone! There is no law against a rookie team entering the Chunin Exams. It doesn't happen often, but there is nothing against it as long as the team's Jonin instructor nominates the team. Team 8 and Team 10 will be allowed to enter the exams just like any other team."

Sarutobi let the crowd quiet down before he continued on. "Since this is such a heated topic, let's just get this out of the way. Tenzou, you lead the only other rookie team. Do you, or do you not, nominate Team 7 for the Chunin Exams?"

All eyes turned on Tenzou and he began to feel uncomfortable. After being in the ANBU for so many years, Tenzou preferred to not be the center of attention. It took Tenzou a few seconds to recover from the shock of being put on the spot and remember his answer to his answer. Tenzou turned to Sarutobi, bowed his head, and opened his mouth to give his answer.

* * *

Omake:

For a second, Naruto thought that the Kyuubi would roar out in rage at what he had said. However, all the Kyuubi did was let out a low, continuous growl. Then the Kyuubi demanded, "What do you want brat? Even an insignificant mortal like you has to do other things then feast your eyes on me."

Naruto just smirked and said, "Actually I am going to feast on you Kyuubi. I just can't decide if I want to roast you or boil you."

The Kyuubi blinked his eyes and exclaimed, "Say what?!"

Faster then the Kyuubi could blink, Naruto pulled out a large grinding stone and started sharpening a gigantic cooking knife. As Naruto was sharpening his knife he said, "I'm hungry and you're already in my stomach. Since you cause me nothing but trouble, I might as well get some culinary enjoyment out of you. I can't wait to try this new Ramen recipe I heard about from Ayame. One of the main ingredients is Fox Animelles."

When the Kyuubi heard that he covered his family jewels with his front paws and started whimpering.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto exited Konoha's ninja library carrying two thick books on Fuuinjutsu. The art of Fuuinjutsu had really started to interest Naruto and it was only partially because of the fact that he was a Jinchuuriki. It was a very versatile art that many people were unfamiliar with, meaning that he'd have an advantage using it against future opponents. The fact that Fuuinjutsu scrolls weren't nearly as regulated and restricted as Ninjutsu or Genjutsu scrolls at the library also helped to pique Naruto's interest.

Just as Naruto was about to turn a corner, he saw Konohamaru, Meogi, and Udon running down the street. Naruto quickly spotted the fear on the trio's faces and called out, "What's going on Konohamaru?"

The little boy ran past Naruto screaming, "Can't talk now boss. Got an angry banshee from hell chasing me!"

Blinking his eyes, Naruto muttered in disbelief, "An angry banshee from hell? What on earth is he talking about?" Naruto quickly got his answer in the form of an enraged Sakura chasing after the munchkin trio. He slapped himself in the face for forgetting about Sakura's temper and then chassed after his teammate muttering, "You so owe me Konohamaru. Getting Sakura mad at you is a dumb thing."

For a few minutes Konoha was treated to a mini chase scene involving Sakura chasing after the munchkin trio and cursing them about insults to her figure, while Naruto chased after Sakura trying to help the trio without becoming Sakura's punching bag. This chase ended when Konohamaru bumped into Kankurou and was promptly lifted up into the air by the angry Suna ninja. Temari was at Kankurou's side hissing into his ear, "What do you think you're doing brother?"

Kankurou growled out, "Hey! This punk ran into me and I'm just teaching him a lesson."

Naruto immediately cut in blurting out, "Leave Konohamaru alone! Are you so stupid that you want to start a war by beating up the Hokage's grandson?"

Temari didn't want to waste time with any of Kankurou's usual stupidity and clamped down on his shoulder blade. The pain from Temari's grip caused Kankurou to drop Konohamaru. As soon as Konohamaru's butt hit the street he took off and hid behind Naruto. Temari then looked at Konohamaru and politely said, "Sorry about my brother's actions. He got into the poisons a little too much when he was little and can't think things through that well."

Naturally, Kankurou exclaimed, "What the hell are you talking about Temari? I know what I'm doing!"

Very quickly, Temari hissed into his ear, "If you did, brother, then you wouldn't be creating an international incident. Besides, you know that he could be near and we don't want to aggravate him." Kanokurou automatically started scanning for Gaara and to his relief didn't find a trace of his brother.

By this point, Sakura had regained her wits and inquired, "What are you two doing here in Konoha? Suna and Konoha may be allies, but that doesn't mean that you two can just show up in the village. You have to have a good reason for being in Konoha."

Surprisingly, Naruto answered Sakura's question. "They're probably here for the Chunin exams Sakura. I was just at the library and saw in one of the reference books that Konoha's hosting the Chunin exams in 6 days." Naruto then turned to the older Sand Siblings and said, "I doubt that we'll see you two in the exam because our instructor hasn't brought up the exam with us. Good luck though." With that said Naruto headed towards his apartment and motioned for the trio to follow him.

Once Naruto and the trio were out of eyesight, Naruto bonked Konohamaru on the head and said, "What were you thinking Konohamaru when you decided to insult Sakura's looks? One thing you should never ever do is insult how a girl looks. Not even insulting Sasuke will get Sakura that mad. You're actually lucky you ran into that Suna ninja since him harming you would have caused an international incident. If Sakura had caught you, you would be black and blue."

Konohamaru looked down at the street and mumbled, "She just really made me mad."

Naruto caught what Konohamaru said and asked, "What did Sakura say to get you so mad that you'd insult her looks Konohamaru? Don't worry, I won't tell your uncle or your grandfather."

This friendly reassurance was all Konohamaru needed to open up and tell Naruto everything. "Well Udon, Meogi, and I were practicing sneaking around when we overheard that Sakura girl complaining to a blond haired girl about you asking her to go out, and how thankful she was that you weren't asking as often as you used to. I then jumped in and told her how you could do better than a flat-chest, big headed gorilla like her."

Sakura's reported comment really cut Naruto. He had been hoping to get Sakura to go out by toning down his requests. Almost instantly Naruto said, "Konohamaru, don't jump into a conversation like that again. I can handle anything anyone says about me, but I won't always be there to pull your fat out of the fire if you shoot your mouth off again." This earned Naruto a quick hug from Konohamaru before the munchkins left to go cause trouble somewhere else.

As soon as Konohamaru Corps was out of sight, Naruto whirled around and punched the brick wall behind him. There was a small trickle of tears from Naruto's eyes as he whispered out, "Why? Why won't Sakura give me a chance? I treat her with more respect and kindness in one day than Sasuke does in a year! He doesn't care about her and always puts her down."

One of the side effects of Naruto's meditation sessions was an increased awareness to his surroundings. Normally, this was a good thing as it allowed Naruto to make better decisions during practice and not get caught off guard. However, it also had the side effect of making it harder for Naruto to lie to himself. Sakura had her good points, but she didn't direct them towards Naruto. As far as she was concerned, the less time she spent around Naruto the better. Naruto wiped a tear away and muttered, "No more. If Sakura wants someone who will belittle her rather then support her then fine by me. I'm not going to waste my time chasing after anymore. Maybe one day she'll see what a mistake she's made."

* * *

Team 7 met the next day at their customary training field. About five minutes later Tenzou arrived holding several pieces of paper in his hand. Tenzou looked at his students and said, "These are applications to the Chunin Exams. If you want to go, show up at room 302 in the Academy on Friday. For the rest of the week we will not have team training so that you can think about whether or not you want to participate in the exams. If you want help training, then come see me and I will help you."

Sasuke and Sakura quickly took there forms and left the field. However, Naruto didn't grab the offered form. Instead, he looked at Tenzou and said, "Something about this doesn't make sense. Why are you offering us this chance? Sasuke doesn't really work well with Sakura or me and he views us as dead weight. Sakura is still the weak point on the team. As for me, well, I'm still quite rough at the fox style taijutsu and I've still got a few points to iron out with my ninjutsu."

Tenzou put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and said, "Very good Naruto. You've realized that Team 7 isn't really ready for the Chunin Exams. The team meets all of the requirements, but the skill just isn't quite there yet. I nominated you and the others as a test to see if you have matured enough to honestly rate your skills. If the three of you had decided to go forward, I would have let you so that you experience your mistake within the relative safety of Konoha. At least here you would have had easy access to friendly medical facilities."

Naruto nodded his head while trying to deal with a torrent of emotions. On the one hand, Naruto was proud that he had figured out Tenzou's test when Sasuke hadn't even realized that the test was going on. However, Naruto was also disappointed that he wasn't really ready to take the Chunin Exams. After a few minutes, he got some control over his emotions and looked up to Tenzou. With a pleading stare Naruto asked, "Can you train me some more?"

Tenzou let out a small smile and replied, "Of course Naruto. One of the reasons why I let the team have the week off was so that if any of you came to me for training I could train you. Now then, what do you say to us going over form 5 and form 9 of the Fox Style? If you can get these and 4 other forms down by Friday, I'll give you a B rank jutsu." Naturally, Naruto jumped at the chance for more training and his application form slowly blew away in the wind.

* * *

When Friday morning rolled around, Naruto had retreated to the Hokage Monument. Naturally, Naruto was sitting on the Yondaime's head. He was under no delusions about what would happen when Sakura and Sasuke got to Room 302 and tried to enter the Chunin Exams. As soon as those two realized that they wouldn't be able to take the exams they'd be on the warpath. Sasuke would want to flay Naruto for preventing him from testing his skill. Sakura would want to pulverize Naruto for keeping Sasuke from attending.

That was why Naruto's backpack and sleeping bag were carefully hidden in the Sandaime's left ear. Naruto figured that staying out of sight for a day or so should be enough for Sasuke and Sakura to cool down. After all, Tenzou did say that he'd take part of the rap and claim that he had asked Naruto to drop out. It wasn't that big of a lie since Tenzou had told Naruto that Team 7 wasn't ready.

Naruto was just about to pull out one of the books he had brought along to pass the time. However, a small orange toad suddenly landed in front of Naruto and said, "Hi there! Are you Naruto Uzumaki?"

Naruto blinked his eyes at the sight of the talking toad. The only reason why Naruto hadn't lost his balance was because he had already seen some weird things as a ninja. A talking toad isn't nearly as weird as a demonic fox in the gut. Naruto quickly collected his wits and replied, "Yes, I'm Naruto. Why are you looking for me?"

The toad smiled and said, "Hi, my name's Gamakichi. I was summoned by Jiraiya to find you and direct you to him. So why don't you follow me?"

Instead of immediately agreeing to follow Gamakichi, Naruto scratched his head and thought about the situation. Naruto didn't know anyone named Jiraiya and it would be naïve to just follow a summons because it asked him to. But at the same time, Naruto thought it would be a bad idea to just brush off the summons. After all, the Yondaime had used toad summons so they had to be loyal to Konoha. That meant that whoever Jiraiya was, he had to have close ties to the village. In the end Naruto sighed and said, "Okay, lead the way."

Gamakichi nodded his head and hopped to the cliff above the heads on the monument. Once Naruto had climbed up to the cliff ledge, Gamakichi sprinted off down the back of the hill. The spry little toad eventually led Naruto to a small canyon where several girls were playing in the river below. Naruto was starting to wonder if Gamakichi was leading him on a wild goose chase when he spotted Jiraiya kneeling behind some bushes with a spyglass fixed on the girls. Gamakichi promptly hopped onto Jiraiya's head and said, "I brought the kid, now where's my treat?"

Jiraiya flicked a small piece of candy up at Gamakichi, and the greedy toad snatched it in mid-air with his tongue. Once Gamakichi had swallowed the treat, he vanished in a cloud of smoke. With a bit of regret, Jiraiya put away his spyglass and turned to face Naruto. He then observed Naruto for a moment and said, "At least you're not as hopeless as you were in Wave."

Naruto's hands clenched into fists and the urge to yell at Jiraiya filled Naruto. Who did this guy think he was to drag him here and mock him? However, the mention of Wave stopped Naruto in his tracks and his eyes bulged out. In a low voice Naruto whispered, "It was you. You're the one who left those scrolls."

A smile appeared on Jiraiya's face and he nodded his head. He then said, "That's right kid. Glad to see that you're starting to use that space between your ears. Your skills have definitely improved since you got those scrolls."

While Naruto a soaking up this praise, a small part of him wondered what the catch was. Living on the harder side of Konoha had taught Naruto that there was not such thing as a free lunch. Why was Jiraiya praising him for his progress? Even more, why did the white haired man leave those scrolls in the first place? Naruto looked Jiraiya in the eye and asked, "Why did you leave me those scrolls? No one, not even the Old Man, have ever given me such a useful gift before."

Jiraiya sighed and his face grew solemn. This wasn't something that Jiraiya wanted to discuss, and he'd been hoping that Naruto would just accept the gift at face value. Nevertheless, Naruto deserved to know the truth. Or at least, a version of the truth that wouldn't reveal a few dangerous facts that Naruto wasn't ready for at the moment. With a heavy heart Jiraiya said, "I knew your folks kid. They were one of the few people that I considered to me my true friends."

Naturally, Naruto's eyes bulged out when Jiraiya mentioned his parents. Before Naruto could open his mouth Jiraiya continued on. "I can't tell you who your parents are Naruto because that would put a big target on your back. They were very good ninjas and there are dozens of people, some who even live in Konoha, would just love to take a shot at their only son. As bad as you had things growing up, it would have been a whole lot worse for you growing up with your heritage known without your parents to protect you."

While uncommon, that kind of a situation was not usual. It was quite common for people to hire ninjas to kill another ninja who had killed a family member. If said ninja was dead or unreachable, family members were often targeted so that the ninja's family could 'feel the pain'. Naruto then asked, "How did they die? Why was I left alone?"

Jiraiya placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder and said, "Your father was on the front lines during the battle with the Kyuubi and died during the sealing. He knew that the Yondaime's jutsu would require a newborn in order to seal away the demon and he allowed you to be used. Your father knew that he was most likely going to day that day, but he had hoped that your mother would be able to watch out for you. Unfortunately, your mother died soon after your father picked you up for the sealing because of complications during birth."

"Part of you is wondering why I didn't take you in if I was friends with your parents. The fact is Naruto; I would have put you in more danger than you were staying in the village. I handle many spy rings for Konoha that are vita for village security and wouldn't have been able to run those and look after you safely. Also, the council wouldn't allow me to take you out of the village. Many people may hate you for your burden, but those on the council would never tolerate an infant Jinchuuriki being away from the village. The chance of you being captured and turned into a weapon against Konoha was just too much of a security threat to them. The council was willing to put their full support behind the Sandaime's Law as long as you didn't leave the village until you were a genin."

It really hurt Naruto to be reminded about how badly his life had been messed up because of the Kyuubi. Even if there were valid reasons for Jiraiya to leave Naruto in Konoha, the fact the demon had caused the Council to be so firm on not allowing Naruto to leave had been a big blow. If Naruto had been made of weaker stuff, he probably would have broke down and cried. However, Naruto had learned to roll with the punches and knew that whining never got anyone anywhere. He looked up at Jiraiya and said, "So why did you ask me to come here?"

Jiraiya folded his arms across his shoulders and replied, "Well Naruto, I was thinking of offering you a little training on the side like a lot of the clans do for their members. Your father was like a son to me and I think that helping you here and there is a way that I can honor his friendship. Usually, I wouldn't consider training someone at your level. But, you've proven that you aren't completely hopeless. Besides, I can't spend all my day doing research."

The perverted grin on Jiraiya's face left no doubt in Naruto's mind what Jiraiya's research entailed. So his parents' friend was a big pervert. Not exactly what Naruto had been hoping for, but it would do. Besides, Jiraiya wanted to help him out and that was a major plus in Naruto's book.

* * *

At the same time over at the Academy, Sasuke and Sakura were heading to Room 301. Make that, the real Room 301 since they had already gotten the two Chunin who had an illusion on Room 201 to drop said illusion. Normally, Izumo and Kotetsu would have sent the duo packing for not having Naruto with them. Tenzou had told the two chunins that he was going to break the news to Sasuke and Sakura.

Just as Sasuke and Sakura reached Room 301, Tenzou appeared in front of them. In his usual calm manner Tenzou said, "Hello Sasuke, Sakura. Would either of you happen to know where Naruto is?"

Sasuke huffed and replied, "Haven't seen the loser all day. I guess he realized that he wasn't ready for the exams and stayed home. Why does it matter?"

Tenzou calmly, as if he was talking about the weather, replied, "Well in that case, you two can't take the Chunin Exams."

Immediately Sakura's temper flared up beyond her usual self-control and she screeched out, "What do you mean we can't take the Exams?! Why should we be bared just because the Idiot didn't show up?"

Suddenly the whole room was filled with Tenzou's killing intent causing practically every genin there for the exams to come crawling out of the woodworks. As the crowd formed, Tenzou started to chastise his more obstinate students. "You two still don't see what's in front of your eyes. This exam requires TEAMS to compete and just like real life, individuals never make it. Moreover, you've both shown that you overestimate your skills and underestimate that of your opponents. Both of these things will get you kill out on a mission."

"Naruto realized from the start that something was off about my entering a team of rookies in the Chunin Exams. How could a trio of rookies, who still have many flaws and had three months of sub par training, hope to take on the best that the other villages had to offer. The answer is you don't have any real hope of passing. I wanted to see if you were mature enough to realize your limits and apparently only Naruto was. In fact, he named your weak points and his own when he confronted me about the exam."

"What makes this whole situation even more pathetic is that you two, the Rookie of the Year and the Top Kunochi, never even suspected what the so called 'Dead Last' figured out in minutes. You two also didn't bother to train after I told you about the Exam on Monday. I freed up the team's schedule for the week so that the three of you could think about the Exams and come to me for training. Only Naruto took the opportunity for private training while you two were lying around treating the break like a vacation. Get out of here and head to our usual training spot. It's time I put you two through some remedial training."

Sakura had tears in her eyes from Tenzou's harsh scolding and ran down the hallway crying her eyes out. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and with barely contained rage he left the hallway. The sight of his students in such a state was like a knife in the chest to Tenzou. He didn't want to be cruel like that, but it was the only option he had left. Those two needed to have their blinders removed and see the world along with their place in it in the proper context. Unlike with Naruto, the gentle and supportive method wasn't working on Sakura and Sasuke. Throwing them in a life or death situation wouldn't work because they had come out of the Wave mission with relatively little change. That meant that the only option left was to rip away their pride so that they could grow up.

Naturally, the public chewing out caused quite a commotion among the assemble genins. Most of the foreign ninjas just found the whole scenario hilarious. However, Temari wasn't laughing at the scene like Kankurou was and she normally would have do. As soon as Temari recognized Sakura, her mind drifted back to her meeting with the pink haired girl and Naruto. Part of her wanted to dismiss Naruto for not even bothering to show up. But, another part of her was intrigued. From Tenzou's berating, Temari learned that Naruto was perceptive and had a good head on his shoulders. It might be worth her while to keep an eye open on him.

Among Team 7's former classmates, pandemonium reigned. None of them had expected Sakura or Sasuke to receive such a tongue lashing from their own teacher. However, what really threw them for a loop was the fact that Naruto had picked up on things that Sasuke and Sakura hadn't. This unexpected upset caused them to start questioning why they were at the exams. Were they just like Sasuke and Sakura overestimating themselves? Suddenly, Shikamaru stopped slouching and headed towards the exit. Ino immediately called out, "Just where do you think you're going Shikamaru?"

Said shadow user sighed and replied, "Home, where else? As troublesome as my mother would be, it's far less troublesome to go home without taking the exams than to take the exams if I'm not ready for them." It was like a dam broke when Shikamaru said those words as all the members of Teams 8 and 10 headed for the door. Tenzou looked at the leaving genin and shook his head. He knew that he'd get pinned as the reason those two teams had left the exam, he just knew it.

* * *

Jiraiya looked at Naruto and said, "Since we've still got a few hours before the third shift at Hot Wings ends, why don't I show you something Naruto. It's a useful jutsu that's within your current abilities and will only get better as you get stronger."

Naruto's eyes light up and he eagerly asked, "What is it? Is the jutsu a really powerful attack?" Even with the training that Tenzou had put him through; Naruto still had a fascination with powerful jutsus. He understood and appreciated the lower level jutsus, but there was just something about the big, flashy jutsus that always drew Naruto's attention.

The look in Naruto's eye gave Jiraiya a sense of déjà vu. This must have been what Sarutobi saw when the old monkey had him as a genin student. Jiraiya took off the scroll on his back and held it in his arms. He then grinned and said, "Yes Naruto, the jutsu I have in mind is powerful. Behold, the Toad Summoning Contract. Once you sign this contract you'll be able to summon powerful toads to help you in battle. Of course, you'll have to work at it a bit before you can summon the really strong toads, but that's a given."

So Jiraiya wasn't offering to teach him a big and powerful jutsu. Naruto wasn't upset at that because summoning was a big deal. Not every ninja got to sign a summoning contract and the fact that it was the same contract that the Yondaime had signed made Naruto grin at Jiraiya's offer. Naruto quickly said, "How do I sign Jiraiya?" He couldn't wait to show off the ability to summon during team practice.

Naruto's enthusiasm was infectious and Jiraiya started grinning a little as well. While opening up the contract Jiraiya said, "It's very simple Naruto. In the next open column you write your name and place your fingerprints. Oh, you also have to write in your blood. It's got to be your blood because that helps create the anchor between you and the toads allowing you to summon them."

After nodding his head, Naruto bit his thumb and quickly signed his name next to his dad's signature. Once that was taken care of, Naruto looked up and asked, "I've signed my name. Now what else do I need to do in order to summon?"

Jiraiya quickly rolled up the scroll and stuck it on his back. He then replied, "The next step is very simple Naruto. You take a little bit of your blood, perform these handsigns, and then put your hand towards the ground. The toad you summon depends on how much chakra you put into the jutsu. If you don't use enough chakra, you won't summon a toad. Once you get proficient at this I'll teach you how to summon multiple toads or a specific toad. Now I want you to perform the handsigns correctly twenty times in a row without trying to summon. I have to come and go a lot so I want to make sure you at least know the basics before I leave."

Naruto could understand that Jiraiya wouldn't always be able to train him since the man had to maintain spy rings. Tenzou had mentioned several times to the team that accurate and current information was vital to the village's survival. Jiraiya smiled after Naruto preformed the required number of hansigns and said, "That's good kid. You'll be able to practice it on your own now. Just remember, more chakra is always better when summoning."

* * *

Omake:

Tenzou hated being right, particularly when it was bad for him. Kurenai and Asuma had been furious when they found out that both their teams had left the exams because of his dressing down of Sakura and Sasuke. The duo had dragged him in front of the Hokage and was currently sticking his fat in the fire. "Lord Hokage," Kurenai said looking at the old leader, "Tenzou's actions have had massive repercussions for the village."

Sarutobi looked at his potential daughter-in-law and said, "Please Miss Yuhi, enlighten me as to how an instructor informing his students that they failed to meet the requirements will have massive repercussions."

Kurenai quickly said, "It was the manner in which Tenzou chose to inform his students. By tearing into his students and pointing out their faults in such a public place he has given the impression that Konoha ninjas are not well trained. While his students obviously needed to be informed of their shortcomings, there was no reason for Tenzou to air his team's dirty laundry."

A stern look crossed Sarutobi's face and he calmly said, "You're right Miss. Yuhi, the manner in which Tenzou explained these facts to his students was quite out of line. I think a few single person D rank missions are in order. You and Asuma may go Miss. Yuhi." The duo left the room happy to get some revenge on Tenzou for scaring their genin away.

Sarutobi looked Tenzou in the eye and said, "For the next three weeks Tenzou, you will be on the mission of filling in for one of the main waiters at the Icha Icha Mansion." A grin crossed Tenzou's face as he quickly decided that sometimes, you just had to take a hit for the team.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto was really starting to wonder if he should have requested a week's leave of absence. Today was the first full team meeting since the start of the Chunin Exams two days ago and the atmosphere surrounding his teammates was really getting to Naruto. Sakura was constantly flip-flopping between frustration and depression. How she pulled that off, Naruto didn't know and didn't want to know. Sasuke was barely keeping his anger in check as Naruto could see the avenger's rage building behind his eyes.

Tenzou suddenly appeared in this emotional witches' brew and calmly said, "Good to see you all here today. Hopefully, you've all learned a valuable lesson over the past week. We're going to go over some basic drills today and then head over for a mission. If we finish soon enough we'll have some more training in the afternoon. Now for our first drill we will be jogging on the stream to my right. Line up in alphabetical order and keep silent. The first person to fall into the river or to have to rest on the bank will have to do extra laps around the village."

The reactions among the members of Team 7 were mixed when they heard what the drill for the day was. Sakura was pleased that Sasuke would be running after her for a chance. Sasuke was content that Tenzou was assigning a semi-challenging drill instead of something basic like shuriken accuracy. Naruto was happy to just be training again.

After Team 7's jog on the river, Tenzou quickly lead his team through the Hokage castle trying to ignore the glares that many of the bureaucratic ninjas were sending him. Everyone in Konoha knew about Tenzou's little stunt by now. Most of the senior ninjas understood why Tenzou tore into Sasuke and Sakura like that. However, many of the lower level ninjas and especially those caught up in the Uchiha myth were angered that Tenzou would do such a thing and in public!

It didn't take the team too long to reach the Hokage's office. Once there, they were assigned D rank mission to restock the food supplies at a hotel. Not exactly the greatest D rank mission out there, but it was better than catching Tora or picking up trash. The mission would have normally taken a genin team the rest of the afternoon to complete. However, Naruto's usage of Shadow Clones allowed Team 7 to finish in half an hour.

This speedy completion was the final straw for Sasuke. In Sasuke's mind, Naruto was mocking him by first not showing up at the Chunin Exams and now by using the shadow clones. Once Naruto placed the last box of supplies in the pantry Sasuke confronted him. "Why didn't you show up at the exams like you were supposed to loser?"

Naruto immediately shot back, "Look bastard, we weren't ready for the exams. Don't you remember Tenzou's dressing down? Everyone in the village knows about it and your faults. I don't see why everyone seems to think you're all that. You don't have you clan's oh so esteemed bloodline, you're less aware of your abilities and limitations than the 'dead last' is, from where I'm standing you've basically just been coasting along on your family name. Well guess what Sasuke, you're family name means nothing! If the Uchiha were really what everyone seems to think they were than why were they all killed in a single night?"

Normally, Naruto wouldn't have made such a low blow like bringing out Sasuke's dead family. However, he was just too angry at Sasuke's attitude to care at the moment. Sasuke was given practically everything by the village even though the jerk had done nothing to deserve it. As far as Naruto was concerned, Sasuke was just throwing a pity party since he didn't get his way. He had tried being considerate of Sasuke and Sakura after Tenzou's scolding, but Sasuke had worn away Naruto's patients.

Sasuke couldn't stand Naruto's disrespectful attitude and something inside him snapped. The last Uchiha charged at Naruto with his fists clenched. Naruto quickly ducked to avoid Sasuke's punch and retaliated with a knee jab to the groin. Sasuke quickly pulled out a kunai and stabbed Naruto's arm.

This brawl was suddenly halted by a massive killing intent that filled the area. Both Sasuke and Naruto slowly turned their heads and they saw Tenzou staring down at them. Tenzou jumped down the ledge and coldly said, "That's enough you to. You're both Leaf ninjas not bandits! I thought you both were more mature than this. Naruto, you should never have baited Sasuke like that. Sasuke, you should never have attacked Naruto. Both of you will go to your apartments and stay there for the rest of the day. There will be team building exercises for the two of you for the rest of the week. Today is the first day that I've been ashamed to know you two; make sure that it's the last time I'm ever ashamed to call you my students."

Naruto felt like he had been hit by a ton of bricks. Tenzou was one of the few people that were precious to Naruto. The man had never spoken harshly about Naruto and had always helped him out in training. In all honesty, Tenzou was the closet person Naruto had to a father figure and hearing that he was ashamed really hurt. Naruto raised his hand and looked at the scar from Wave. The sight of the scar reminded Naruto about his oath never kill unless it was to protect someone else. Right then and there, Naruto pulled out a kunai and cut into scar. He remade his oath and this time added that he would never bait a friend or ally like he had just done with Sasuke ever again.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was walking back to his apartment with a figural storm cloud hovering above his head. Sasuke didn't know whether he was more enraged by Naruto's attitude, fighting Naruto, or Tenzou's scolding. About the only thing Sasuke could consider good about today was that the villagers were leaving him alone.

Once Sasuke was inside his apartment, a voice called out from the shadows, "Such a shame isn't it?" Immediately Sasuke moved into a defensive stance and the voice commented on it, "Very good Sasuke, very good. Only a true prodigy would be able to respond so quickly at such a young age."

Sasuke glared around his apartment and called out, "Show yourself!"

The voice simply chuckled and retorted, "Sorry Sasuke. You've just not powerful enough to get me to do anything. And in all honesty, you never will. Poor, Poor little Uchiha, you have so much potential and yet, you will never be more than a dog for Konoha. You'll never be allowed to gain the strength you'll need to beat Itachi. Why do you think they made you go through all those years at the academy instead of promoting you like they did for your brother? Why do you think you were given the dead last and a worthless fangirl for teammates instead of joining a more experienced genin team that had an opening? Why do you think your instructor denied you the chance to go to the Chunin Exams?"

Within Sasuke's heart and mind, the darker part of his soul that had been born during the massacre listened to the voice's words and caused Sasuke to seriously consider what he was hearing. The rage that Sasuke had been feeling all day tinted his memories and made the voice's words seem true. It was only the vestiges of goodness within Sasuke's heart that caused him to doubt what he was hearing. This goodness caused Sasuke to asked, "Why should I believe you?"

"Because," the voice said, "I've come to free you from your chains and bonds Sasuke. Don't take my word, judge what I say by what you see happening around you. As proof, I'll unlock a portion of your power that Konoha has attempted to burry into the ground."

Before Sasuke could say anything, he felt a needle pierce the back of his neck. Instantly afterwards, Sasuke's body was racked by pain as he felt like he was burning up from the inside. The pain got so bad that Sasuke collapsed on the ground and flailed around like he was having an epileptic attack. As soon as the pain receded Sasuke screamed out, "What did you do to me?"

A mirror suddenly appeared out of nowhere held by a dead white hand. The voice soothingly called out, "Look and see what I done for you Sasuke. Your Sharingan has been unlocked." Sasuke looked into the mirror and saw that his Sharingan was active. The voice sweetly continued on, "I just want to help you little Uchiha. Konoha wants you to be their obedient puppet, but I want you grow to your potential. I and I alone will help you gain what you truly need: revenge for your family."

Sasuke's head jerked away from the mirrior and he saw a pair of reptilian eyes gleaming in the darkness. In an eager tone Sasuke asked, "Who are you and what do you want for your help?"

Orochimaru stepped out of the shadows and replied, "I am Orochimaru, former ninja of Konoha. I want to help you because, my dear little Uchiha, the same thing that is happening to you happened to me. Konoha tried to bottle my abilities and keep me under the village's thumb. If you wish, I will teach you everything that your so called instructor is denying you. Do you accept Sasuke?"

Konoha or Orochimaru, which one would Sasuke choose? On the one hand, Konoha was his home. But on the other hand, Orochimaru was offering him the chance to fulfill his vengeance. Sasuke slowly nodded his head and said, "I accept your offer."

Orochimaru smiled in glee as he held Sasuke's cheek with his hand. The old monkey was a fool for letting Sasuke live and the boy's instructor was a fool for holding the boy back. Both would come to regret, Orochimaru knew that as he gazed on his future vessel and feasted on the darkness burning within the boy. As of this moment, Sasuke belong to him.

* * *

Kakashi was walking to a store on the other end of the village to get a new part for his icemaker when his path crossed the memorial stone. The sight of the memorial stone caused Kakashi to flinch. He had been avoiding coming to the stone ever since his removal from Team 7. It just served to remind Kakashi about all of his past failures and how he did nothing to correct them.

Just as Kakashi was about to leave, he heard the sound of a young woman crying. Normally, Kakashi would just let someone grieving room to grieve. However, he decided to go and see what was going on. Maybe he was hoping to put some of his ghosts to rest by helping someone else. Maybe he was hoping to prevent someone from falling into the same trap that he had. The Cyclops ninja just didn't know why he went searching for the person crying.

It took Kakashi about three minutes to find out who was crying. To his astonishment, Hinata Hyuga was sitting in front of her family's memorial crying her eyes out. The sight just looked wrong to Kakashi. Hinata was a sweet, if very shy and meek, girl. Many of the villagers respected her and considered her to be the best Hyuga to know, even if many in her family weren't too thrilled with her. She was just one of those people that no one wanted to see cry. Kakashi hunched down next to Hinata had said, "Would you like to talk about whatever's bothering you?"

Hinata was so distraught that didn't bother to see who was talking to her and proceeded to spill her guts. "I, I just heard that my cousin Neji was killed in the Chunin Exams. H-he had to f-fight against a Suna ninja named G-garra of the Sand. F-from what Neji's teammate Tenten told me, Garra used a jutsu named Sand Funeral on Neji."

Kakashi felt his heart go out to Hinata. He knew exactly how it felt like to have someone you consider as a brother die. He also knew that Hinata probably wasn't going the moral support she needed. Hiashi was the type of person who preferred to keep everything inside. Kurenai would probably let Hinata have her space to greave and then offer a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. It wasn't like Hinata had and close friends that she could talk to about this.

Once Hinata was just sobbing again Kakashi spoke. "It's going to hurt Hinata and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The kind of pain you're feeling won't ever go away; you'll just get used to it as time goes by. You'll only have two choices on how to handle the hurt Hinata. You can either let it consume you and wallow in your self-regret and if-only-I, or you can train to try to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. Trust me when I say that you don't want to wallow in self-regret; doing so will just destroy your life."

Hinata looked up at Kakashi and tearfully said, "How do I get stronger? Can you help me?" Kurenai had been mostly focusing on getting Hinata to be more self-confident. Oh Kurenai had taught Team 8 a lot of useful bits, but Kurenai preferred to let her students learn their clan jutsus. The red eyed genjutsu mistress figured that all her students, particularly Hinata, needed was a positive self-image and they would be albe to perform their clans' famous jutsus spectacularly. Unfortunately, this was exactly the opposite of what Hinata needed to build up her self image.

Luckily for Hinata, Kakashi didn't have Kurenai's maternal attachment and was able to figure out exactly what Hinata needed. The copy cat was immediately faced with a difficult conundrum. Should he reject Hinata's request and tell her to go ask Kurenai, or should he say yes and help her? A part of Kakashi immediately wanted to tell her to go ask Kurenai. After all, she was Hinata's teacher and wasn't complete failure in teaching like he was.

However, Kakashi couldn't bring himself to tell Hinata to go to Kurenai. There was just something in Hinata's voice made Kakashi feel that rejecting her request would be a huge mistake. Kakashi got down in a slightly reluctant manner and said, "Okay Hinata, I'll help you get stronger." The tearful smile Hinata gave him reassured Kakashi that he had made the correct call. Maybe, just maybe, this was the gods' way of allowing him to redeem himself for his failure with Team 7.

* * *

Naruto was sitting on a tree branch overlooking one of the many meadow training grounds. Tenzou had finally let Naruto and Sasuke off the hook for their fight a week ago, so Naruto had decided to take a break and just relax for a while. The team building exercises that Tenzou had put the squabbling duo through had been down right sadistic and insured that Naruto would never pick a fight with his teammates ever again. Naruto's oath had a lot more force to it with the memory of having to jump across a pit of venomous snakes on poles while carrying a boulder and Sasuke.

In all honesty, Naruto didn't mind just lounging about. He wasn't about to spend a great deal of time just lounging about like say Shikamaru, but it was enjoyable to do every now and then. This unused training ground was peaceful and allowed Naruto to escape from the glares of the obstinate villagers. While more and more of the villagers were toning down the glares, Naruto still had a long way to go before the majority would freely accept him.

This solitude ended when Temari walked into the meadow from Naruto's left. Naruto immediately noticed the Suna kunoichi and started to observe her. Temari was wearing her usual outfit and the look on her face showed that she was uncertain about something. Naruto quickly decided to alert Temari about his presence and he called out, "Hey there!" Almost immediately, Temari whirled around to look up at Naruto. This caused Naruto to wave and say, "Hello. I didn't expect to see you again so soon Temari."

It totally blew Temari's mind that Naruto knew her name and she blurted out, "How did you know my name Naruto?"

Almost immediately Naruto started to grin and he replied, "I remembered your name when your brother mentioned it. By the way, I enjoyed how you completely owned him. Konohamaru is rather special to me and I really wanted your brother to pay for threatening the runt. By the way, how do you know my name? I don't recall it coming up when we met."

Temari was impressed at Naruto's memory and decided to answer him. "I was there when your instructor berated that pink haired girl and your other teammate. Your name had been brought up and it stuck in my mind for some reason. It was probably because I've never heard of someone named after fish paste."

Naruto immediately gave Temari an indignant response. "I'm not named after fish paste! My name is Naruto as in maelstrom, not as in the ramen ingredient. Why would you even think such a thing? There's absolutely no way that a real kunoichi would be so dumb that they would believe that anyone would name a kid after food like that." As soon as Naruto finished he folded his arms across his chest and did his patented foxy pout.

The Kazekage's daughter just couldn't help smiling when she saw Naruto pout. A few seconds later Temari remarked, "What did you mean by a true kunoichi?" Temari was hoping to bait Naruto into talking again. There was just something about Naruto that made her want to talk to him. Maybe it was because he was treating her like a regular person instead of as the Kazekage's daughter or as Garra's sister.

After adjusting his balance in the branch, Naruto answered Temari. "I thought it would be obvious what I meant Temari. You're defiantly a real kunoichi who takes her training seriously instead of being a fangirl. Trust me, I know the difference. I spent several years chasing after a girl in the academy because she looked nice and was very smart. However, she was a fangirl of the rookie of the year and I was eventually forced to realize that she wasn't going to like me. Once I had my blinders off I realized just how weak she was because she spent so much time chasing after our teammate."

Naruto had grown to dislike fangirls ever since he had stopped chasing after Sakura. He had found them annoying before, but now they just grated on his nerves. Part of this was because Naruto thought that fangirls were making a mockery of kunoichi. However, a big part of Naruto's distaste was because he had fallen for a fangirl for shallow reasons. Falling in love with someone just because of how they looked was just stupid. Even more, his hard times in the village were because of people using that kind of faulty logic with him and the Kyuubi.

Temari couldn't help being intrigued by what Naruto said and his actions. She was used to people falling into distinct categories, but Naruto didn't fit into any of her preconceived ideas. He was smart, but he wasn't a nerd. He seemed to have some street smarts, but he wasn't a punk. His body showed that he had too much training to be an average ninja, but at the same time he had indirectly admitted that he had been the last in his class. Every time Temari found out something about Naruto she was left with more questions.

Back when Temari had first been learning how to use her battle fan her teacher would say that the best way two ninjas could ever understand each other was to fight each other. According to Sango, you could learn more another ninja in fifteen minutes of fighting than you could hope to learn in fifteen years of talking. At the moment, Temari was willing to give Sango's idea a shot. Temari looked up at Naruto and called out, "Want to have a spar? I need to practice for the finals next month and I don't want to let anyone else in the finals know how I'm doing."

Naruto put his hand under his chin and appeared to be thinking about it. Almost immediately a grin crossed Naruto's face and he exclaimed, "Sure Temari. There's no way I'd pass up the chance to see how well I'd do against a finalist in the Exams." As soon as Naruto said that, he jumped out of the tree and landed a few feet away from Temari. He then looked her in the eye and asked, "So Temari, what are the limits of our spar?"

Temari looked around the meadow for a second and then she answered Naruto. "We'll use the meadow as the arena. If either of us leaves the meadow we lose and that includes going up into the tree branches. As to limits on the actual spar, no killing blows. But other than that, it will be a free for all. We'll start the spar in 10 seconds."

Naruto immediately nodded his head and fell into a defensive stance. The battle fan that Temari was wearing told Naruto that his opponent was a wind user. However, he didn't know just how skilled Temari was with the battle fan or what other skills she might have. All Naruto could tell was that Temari was extremely confident in her abilities. Not confident as in she dismissed him as a thread, but rather confident as in she knew she was good. Since Naruto didn't have much to go on, he decided to open the spar by launching a low power Fire Style: Fireball at Temari.

As soon as Temari saw the fire jutsu, she jumped into the air. It was possible for a wind user to stop a fire jutsu, but Temari didn't want to waste the chakra. Besides, it was obvious that Naruto's attack was only meant to test her reactions. The young wind mistress quickly whipped out her battle fan and sent a low powered wind jutsu at Naruto to test his reaction.

Thanks to Naruto's taijutsu training, he cart wheeled to his left to avoid Temari's attack. Naruto stopped cart wheeling about fifteen feet away from his original position and flashed Temari a grin. A friendly spar like this was so much fun! With their opening moves out of the way, Naruto and Temari started trading jutsus with each other. Temari was avoiding a taijutsu match because she preferred using wind jutsus over using her fan as a club. Naruto simply didn't feel comfortable fighting hand to hand with the threat of that battle fan smashing into his skull.

Temari started to show the first signs of fatigue a few minutes into the match. However, Naruto wasn't tired in the least. The match continued on a little while longer and Temari started to sweat from exhaustion, while Naruto was still going strong. It didn't make any sense to Temari. How could someone who could go this long in a spar be unready for the Chunin Exams? Suddenly an idea came to her. What if Naruto was only good in long range jutsus? The kunoichi decided to test this theory and charged at Naruto.

Naruto started back peddling as soon as he saw Temari charge. There was absolutely no way that he'd let her hit him with that fan. Getting slugged by Sakura's fist was one thing, but getting hit by a twenty pound fan going over 100 miles an hour was something totally different. Naruto couldn't get enough time to create shadow clones to fight Temari or summon a toad to hold the battle fan. This game of cat and mouse ended when Temari swung at Naruto and forced to roll into the forest to doge. Naruto took one look at his position and he chuckled. "Well Temari, it looks like you win." He said with a small grin on his face.

How did Naruto do it? How could he lose a match like that and smile? Temari immediately blurted out, "Aren't you angry that you lost?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders and said, "Not really. You are a finalist after all, so it would be pretty stupid of me to believe I had a large chance of wining. Sure, there was the possibility that I could win, but the odds were in your favor. Besides, it was fun sparing with you." Tenzou had taught Naruto that there was time to never give up and a time to admit when someone else was stronger. A friendly spar between allies was the latter and not the former.

A small blush crossed Temari's face as she listened to Naruto. No one had ever told her that they had fun sparring with her and actually mean it. It made Temari feel something in her chest which, as weird as it felt she liked. She looked Naruto in the eye and said, "Hey, it was fun sparring with you too Naruto. Want to do it again tomorrow?" Naruto's grin told Temari everything she needed to know.

* * *

Sarutobi was sitting in his office gazing through his crystal ball at Naruto and Temari. Today had been one of those rare days when his secretary didn't bring in paperwork by the pound, so the old Hokage was using his crystal ball to check up on things around the village. Naruto happened to be Sarutobi's favorite youngster to watch through the crystal ball. Something almost always came up around Naruto that could get Sarutobi to smile.

Naruto's pseudo grandfather had been watching Naruto ever since Temari had wandered into the meadow. Sarutobi had been curious to see how Naruto would act around the Suna kunoichi and almost busted out laughing. His thoughts drifted back about twenty years ago when Kushina and Minato had first met. The similarities in events between Naruto's meeting with Temari and Minato's meeting with Kushina was just too much for Sarutobi to watch without laughing at the irony.

After a few minutes, Sarutobi stopped looking through his crystal ball and pulled out a notepad. Jiraiya had mentioned that Orochimaru had been seen in Wind Country several times over the past few months and Suna hadn't reported it to Konoha. That was worrying since the treaty stated that Suna and Konoha were supposed to report the movements of each other's criminals in their own country. That was troubling, to say the least.

Sarutobi wouldn't put it past the Yondaime Kazekage to double-cross Konoha given the situation with the Wind Daimyo. In all honesty, Sarutobi probably would do the same if the Fire Daimyo suddenly shifted the bulk of his missions to a foreign village. The only reason why Sarutobi hadn't alerted the jonins yet was because didn't want to tip his hand before everything was ready. Any possible spies would know that the game was up if the Leaf Ninjas started going on extra high alert without some really serious incident occurring.

Turning his attention back to his notepad, Sarutobi wrote down a few ideas he had for what to do after the invasion was over. While Konoha would almost certainly survive a possible invasion, Sarutobi couldn't possible divine what state the village would be in. There were certain factions that could use the chaotic period after an invasion to push their own agendas for the village. Hopefully, he would survive the fight and not have to have most of these plans come into effect. However, Sarutobi never got his position as Sandaime for being a fool and was prepared to do what was necessary to protect the village.

* * *

Omake:

It took Kakashi about three minutes to find out who was crying. To his astonishment, Hinata Hyuga was sitting in front of her family's memorial crying her eyes out. The sight just looked wrong to Kakashi. Hinata was a sweet, if very shy and meek, girl. Many of the villagers respected her and considered her to be the best Hyuga to know, even if many in her family weren't too thrilled with her. She was just one of those people that no one wanted to see cry. Kakashi hunched down next to Hinata had said, "Would you like to talk about whatever's bothering you?"

Hinata was so distraught that didn't bother to see who was talking to her and proceeded to spill her guts. "I, I just found out today that Kurenai was a PORN STAR! How could I dishonor my mother's memory by thinking of a BDSM actress like a mother?"

Kakashi got down on his knees and cheerfully said, "Don't worry Hinata. There are more ways to get into the XXX business than just BDSM." That was the wrong thing for Kakashi to say as he discovered the Ultra secret Juuken move- 64 palms plus 65th exploding strike.


	6. Chapter 6

Tenzou sat at the desk in his house filling out his monthly review for Team 7. In all honesty, Tenzou did not like the way things were going with his team as his report showed:

"The team dynamics of Team 7 is deteriorating rapidly. I believe that this deterioration is a result of psychological problems on Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha regarding Naruto Uzumaki. Both of them appear to have security issues with the fact that Naruto, who was the 'dead last' in the academy, is catching up or surpassing them in ability. This problem has been accentuated by preexisting conditions within Team 7's dynamics. A further examination of all three genin will reveal these conditions and the changes that have occurred."

"Naruto Uzumaki was, as I stated in last month's report, originally a hyper boy who was calming down. Also, he had a crush on Sakura and a rivalry with Sasuke. Over the past month, the boy's crush on Sakura has disappeared and the nature of his rivalry with Sasuke has changed. Instead of Naruto starting the squabbles with Sasuke, it has been Sasuke who starts the duo's confrontations. Other than these changes, Naruto has remained a bright and cheerful young man with impressive potential that he is unlocking."

"Sakura Haruno sadly retains a fangirl outlook on her ninja career and continues to maintain the minimum requirements for her status as a genin. Attempts to coax her into more independent studies and initiative with her training have had little success. Recently, Sakura has started showing the beginning signs of a depression. I believe that this depression is the result of my attempt to make her see how little progress she has actually made (see reports on preliminary Chunin Exam culling for more information) coupled with the loss of attention from Naruto."

Sasuke Uchiha is as always, a very talented genin with a loner attitude. While never very friendly with his teammates, Sasuke's attitude has become more hostile and aloft as of late. I believe that this increased hostility is the direct result of the fact that Naruto was more realistic in his outlook then Sasuke was and the fact that Sasuke's Sharingan has finally activated. In regards to the Sharingan, I have noticed that Sasuke has a desire to use it all the time and has used it to acquire a few low level jutsus from fellow Konoha ninjas. I have attempted to impress upon Sasuke the necessity for the ethical use of the Sharingan, but he seems to believe these lectures are a direct affront to his heritage."

Tenzou paused in writing his report to look at his photo of Team 7. The picture had been taken a little over two months ago as part of a team bonding attempt. In the photo, he and Naruto were sitting on a park bench while Sasuke and Sakura were sitting on the sidewalk in front of the two on the bench. The picture was slightly off angle since one of Naruto's shadow clones had taken the photo. Still, Tenzou thought it was better than many of the professional photos he had been in.

It was an honor and a pleasure to teach the trio. However, Tenzou did have to admit that he was fonder of Naruto then his other two students. He didn't want to have a favorite, but Naruto's cheerful attitude, honest desired to learn, and willingness to work hard had made the blonde his favorite pupil. Still, Tenzou carefully planed out his lessons and insured that all of his students received the education that they needed.

But what was he to do about Team 7's floundering team dynamics? Putting them through more team building exercises would only do so much, unless the trio was willing to work together. Tenzou grabbed his pen again and continued to write his report:

"It is my request as Jonin instructor that an independent evaluation of Team 7 is done by a qualified ninja. A solution to restore and boost Team 7's cohesiveness to expected levels must be found. Dissolving the team is not an option. Sasuke and Sakura would not react well to a major change in team dynamics. Naruto would be able to handle a team change, but there is the high possibility of him receiving a Jonin that would resent him and thus, whether intentionally or not, weaken Naruto's training."

Tenzou really hoped that Lord Hokage would be able to solve this problem. All three of his genin had excellent potential as ninja. However, Sasuke and especially Sakura might not be able to realize their potential unless they could be brought out of their current problems. Naruto wasn't a major worry for Tenzou, since the boy already had the necessary attitude, drive, and basic skills to make it as a ninja. All Naruto needed at the moment was to expand his list of jutsus, refine what he already knew, and gain some more experience.

* * *

Naruto was sitting out in the meadow field that he and Temari usually used for their spars. Ever since their first spar, the two of them had sparred against each other at least once a day. At first, Naruto had been surprised that he'd have the opportunity to spar with Temari every day. Tenzou had explained to him a few days ago that the Hokage wasn't sending any genin teams out of the village because of the increase number of D rank missions that were related to the arriving nobles. This increase didn't make Naruto's day, but at least he got to hang around Temari more.

The Suna kunoichi was confusing and bewildering to Naruto. She reminded him of Ino some of the time with her in-charge attitude that practically screamed listen to me or else. But, that was only a tiny facet of her personality. Unlike Ino, Temari was able to control her personality and was more reserved than the other blond kunoichi. The fact that Temari had some serious skills made her all the more enjoyable to hang around. Naruto suddenly remembered a moment during the spar yesterday when Temari had jumped over him in such a way that he got a perfect panty shot for a second. Of course, Naruto had paid for that view with Temari whipping his butt because he was distracted.

Shaking his head, Naruto reminded himself that he wasn't a pervert and that he needed to focus on his individual training. Temari wouldn't be arriving in half an hour so he could train those skills that he hadn't showed her yet. Even if Temari was his friend, there was no way that Naruto would show her all of his skills. Tenzou had told Team 7 many times that they needed to be careful about who knew the full extent of their abilities and a new friend was not in that select group. Besides, Naruto could tell that Temari had been holding back during their spars as well.

Currently, Naruto was practicing his toad summoning. Jiraiya had told his godson that the more chakra he put into the jutsu the better the results. The old pervert was correct about the more chakra better results, since Naruto had managed to summon toads the size of horses and even larger with practice. Naruto sent out a wave of shadow clones to check the surrounding area. During the blonde's last summoning attempt he nearly revealed the fact that he could summon to everyone within visual range when he summoned Gamaken. That was not something that Naruto wanted to risk again when he practiced summoning this time. Today, hopefully, he'd summon the biggest, meanest toad alive: Gamabunta. With supreme effort, Naruto pulled all the chakra that he could into his hand and used the summoning jutsu.

Naruto knew that something had gone wrong even before the smoke cleared. There was the absence of a certain distinct feel under his feet that signaled that the genin hadn't summoned one of the larger toads. Suddenly, an old and slightly whiny female voice rang out, "Jiraiya! Why have you summoned us this time?"

This voice was almost instantly answered by an old and slightly grumpy male voice that said, "I don't think that little Jiraiya summoned us Ma."

Almost immediately afterwards Ma replied, "What do you mean Pa?! That perverted brat is the only one who can summon us. Don't tell me that your memory's going." As soon as Ma finished speaking, the smoke cleared enough so that Naruto could see two small, old toads standing in front of him.

Naruto had become a lot more restrained from how he had been during the Wave mission. However, seeing two small, old toads after all the effort he had put into trying to summon Gamabunta was just too much for Naruto. He shouted out at the top of his lungs, "What's the deal! I put nearly half of my chakra into the summoning jutsu and instead of getting Gamabunta, I get two old farts!"

Ma pulled out her purse and whacked Naruto upside the head with it. She immediately followed up with jumping on Naruto's shoulder and shouting into his ear, "How dare you speak of me that way you disrespectful brat! Don't you know anything of how you're supposed to speak of a seasoned beauty like me?"

Pa started grinning and he quickly retorted, "Get real Ma. You weren't a beauty when you were young and you certainly aren't one now." This smart remark earned Pa a close up of Ma's purse. Luckily, the old toad was used to his wife's temper and quickly bounced back. Pa then decided to stop joking and focused on Naruto who was slightly out of it from seeing the old couple's antics. For about a week now, he had been hearing reports from the other toads about a new summoner. Obviously, the boy in front of him had to be the summoner he was hearing about.

The old toad sage pulled out his pipe and took a quick smoke as he thought about this situation. Why were he and Ma summoned instead of Gamabunta? The power behind the summoning jutsu should have summoned his idiot grandson just like Naruto had been hoping for. Pa pulled out his pipe and said, "Naruto, what were you thinking about as you were gathering your chakra and while you were performing the summoning jutsu? If you tell me, I might be able to figure out why you summoned Ma and me."

Naruto figured that Pa, being a toad, would have the best chance at figuring out what went wrong. So, the young man sat down and said, "I was trying to summon Gamabunta. I figured that if I could summon the toad boss and get him to work with me that Jiraiya or Tenzou would be willing to tell me what a sage is."

Pa's eyes narrowed slightly and he asked, "Why would a tadpole like you want to know about sages? Moreover, how do you even know that sages even exist?"

Naruto looked Pa in the eye and said, "Do you know what happened to me shortly after I was born?" Pa grimly nodded his head as he remembered the loss of Naruto's father. The blond ninja then continued on. "Well, my unwanted roommate told me that he was willing to make a deal to work with me if I became a true sage. Do you know anything about becoming a sage?"

The two senior toads looked at each other for a moment and then nodded their heads. Pa quickly turned back to Naruto and said, "I know all about becoming a sage, tadpole. The Sage abilities are something that a human can only learn from an elder summon like Ma and I. Not even a sage can pass along the sage techniques, since the techniques require the bond between human and animal that occur with a summoning contract. Besides, the process itself is very dangerous and can kill the student if they're not careful."

Ma then took over and continued on explaining things to Naruto. "Just forget about the sage techniques boy. The chance of someone surviving the training is less than one in twenty and that's for a fully grown prodigy. You're just a half-trained child. There is absolutely no way that you could survive the training."

Pa saw just how annoyed Naruto was getting and remembered back to when Jiraiya started his training. The old toad could see the same fire and stubborn determination in Naruto's eyes that Jiraiya had possessed. Ma's warning would only grate on the boy's nerves and would make him all the more determined to become a sage. So to head off the almost inevitable shouting, Pa wisely said, "At the moment. You see, it would be extremely unwise to train you in the sage techniques at the moment. Your age and current skill makes it inadvisable to train you at the moment. Once you get a little older and are better trained in Chakra control and Chakra manipulation, then you can receive sage training if you still desire."

Immediately after Pa said that Ma shot back, "You must be out of your mind Pa! How can you go around making a promise like that? Sage training isn't just some reward that you can hand out willy-nilly."

Naruto decided that this particular senior citizen showdown had gone on long enough. He folded his arms across he chest and shouted out, "Will you two just shut up? Ma, if Pa says that he'll train me in sage techniques when I'm older, then he will train me when I'm older. If he didn't then I'd just keep on pestering you two to teach me. The Kyuubi stated that he'd only deal with me if I became a true sage and there's absolutely no way that I'm going to let the old fuzzball weasel his way out of coming to the table."

* * *

Temari walked into her hotel room, plopped onto her bed, and sighed. Today's spar with Naruto had been quite enjoyable. The energetic boy had been excited about something; just what he was excited about she didn't know, but Temari had enjoyed his cheerful attitude. A phantom pain suddenly flared up on Temari's upper right arm reminding her of one of the blows Naruto had landed on her today. The pain reminded her that she needed to practice more. It wasn't like she could just let a green genin beat her.

A scowl crossed Temari's face and she mentally scolded herself for lumping Naruto in with the rest of the typical green genin. Naruto was anything but the stereotypical green genin. Personally, Temari was a little surprised that Naruto hadn't showed up for the Chunin Exams now that she knew him better. From what she could see, Naruto had a great deal of skill with wind jutus and he was incredibly adaptable. Sure his taijutsu was a little lacking, but that wasn't too big of a reason for him to stay out of the exams. He showed more skill in their spars than Temari had seen in several of the spars in the preliminary round.

Without warning, a tear formed in Temari's eye. Why the hell was she crying now? She had gone for years without crying. Both she and Kankurou had been alienated from the rest of their peers for being Gaara's siblings. They hadn't been jeered at, but they had been very used to the silent treatment. Growing like that without her mother's love and her father's indifference had caused Temari to stop crying a long time ago.

Naruto's face came to Temari's mind and she realized exactly why she was crying. She and her team were here on a secret mission to attack Konoha and it was eating at her because Naruto was her friend. Why oh why did she have to find out about the invasion plans after her first spar with Naruto? If only she knew, then she could have been on guard so that Naruto wouldn't have wormed his way past her defenses.

Oh, who did Temari think she was kidding? Naruto had somehow managed to make it passed her mental defenses without her even realizing it. Her knowing about the invasion before their first dual probably wouldn't have changed a thing. Besides, her time with Naruto these past two weeks was something that she wouldn't trade for anything. The boy was just so happy, confident, and fun to be around. Sure, her fellow blonde was able to constantly confuse Temari with his unexpected plans, but that only made him more enjoyable to be around. He was the first real friend she had had in a long time.

Temari leaned back until she was lying on her bed staring up at the hotel room ceiling. What by the desert was she going to do about Naruto and this stupid invasion? If Temari had been an airhead fangirl, which she thankfully was not, she might have come up with some crack-pot idea of telling Naruto about the invasion to stop it. Luckily, Temari was a kunoichi and knew that the real world didn't work like that. Revealing what she knew about the invasion would only be a ticket to Konoha's interrogation chambers.

Suddenly, the Suna kunoichi vaguely remembered a passage from the village's law code that might offer her a solution. Temari practically jumped off of her bed and ran to her suitcase. She hurriedly pulled out the codex and flipped through its pages until she found the passage in question. Temari's eyes light up as she reread the passage and saw the solution to her problems. Yes, this would cause some major problems for her with Naruto, but at least it would keep him by her side!

Wait a minute, why was she so excited about this little law and why was she so worried about Naruto's reaction? It wasn't like she was in love with the guy, right? He was just a friend that she wanted to keep and didn't want to lose in the coming invasion. That's all it was, wasn't it?

* * *

Sarutobi was sitting in his office looking at the three ANBU squads in front of him. These twelve men and women were his most trusted and loyal ninjas out of all the other ninjas in Konoha. They were the ones that he could count on to handle tasks that required the utmost secrecy. That meant that they were the ones who took care of those dirty missions that could never see the light of day.

In a stern and slightly sorrowful voice the old Hokage said, "My friends, I know that I have had to ask you to perform many missions that no one would ever want to do. However, I'm afraid that I'll have to ask you all to perform one last mission for me. I have recently received evidence that strongly suggests that Orochimaru's Oto village and Suna will attack Konoha during the Chunin Exam finals. You, like all the other Jonins, already knew that something like this was going to happen. The reason why I am reminding you of this invasion is because you will be using the invasion as a cover to fulfill your mission."

"Certain factions within the village have for years been trying to wrestle control of the village away from me. Danzo has been trying to force me out and assume the position of Hokage for himself. Others, like my former teammates, have been trying to turn the council into the ultimate source of authority in Konoha. It is very likely that I will die in the invasion and both groups will use the period of confusion after my death to try and usurp power. Therefore, I am assigning you twelve to assassinate Danzo, my two former teammates, and several other members of the council."

The ANBU members quickly glance at each other and then nodded their heads to show that they accepted their mission. Sarutobi quickly dismissed them so that he could cry in solitude. Even though this mission was necessary, Sarutobi hated himself for issuing it. Danzo and his overly militant policies had always been a problem for the professor. Why couldn't that war hawk realize that aggressively perusing ever minor slight would only weaken the village in the long run? The Nidaime had flatly refused to make Danzo the Sandaime since he knew that the man's policies would exhaust Konoha's strength.

As for Homura and Koharu, those two had really changed over the years since they were teammates. Why they favored the council and wanted to make it politically stronger Sarutobi would never know. Concentrating power in a group of hereditary positions with no other qualification except for age only created a breeding ground for corruption. What's worse is that it separated those in charge from the village that they would be ruling. The Senju brothers had been wise on insisting on one village, one ruler. Having the Hokage pass on the position to the most qualified ninja insured that the village would always have a qualified ruler who knew what was going on.

About half and hour later, Sarutobi had managed to compose himself for Jiraiya's appointment. Seeing his white-haired pupil always brought a smile to Sarutobi's face. Jraiaiya walked into the office with his typical perverted grin and a slap mark on his face. Obviously, the Toad Sage had just spotted Sarutobi's newest secretary. Jiraiya gave his old teacher a genuine smile and said, "So what do you want to talk to me about?"

Sarutobi gave a soft smile and said, "I want to hear how your training with Naruto is going. What's your honest opinion on the boy's progress?"

Jiraiya folded his arms and said, "It's obvious that someone in the Academy wasn't doing their job correctly. The brat has tons of potential and just needed to understand the basics. I've been keeping my eye on him during his independent training and I'm extremely impressed with his progress in summoning. Just the other day he managed to summon the elder Toad Sages! You know how much work it is to summon just one animal sage and summoned both at the same time. What's more, Naruto was able to get Pa to agree to give him sage training when he got older. It took me five years after summoning Pa to convince him to train me."

The old Hokage nodded his head and replied, "That is indeed impressive. Obviously, Naruto inherited his father's work ethic and determination. Tenzou has also mentioned things like this in his team reports." Sarutobi's face lost its smile as he continued on. "Sadly, we can't spend all day talking about promising genin. I called you here Jiraiya so that you would be the first to know about my latest edict. In the event of my death, you are to become the Hokage."

Naturally, Jiraiya looked at Sarutobi in shock and then blurted out, "Did you put something illegal in your pipe? You've got to be high on something to think that I'd make a decent Hokage. Remember, you chose Minato and not me to succeed you."

Sarutobi shot his unruly student a withering glare and shot back, "Nothing is illegal in this village unless the Fire Daimyo or the Hokage says it is. But for your information, I never smoke anything except for Tea Country Tobacco. Also, you were always one of my choices to be my successor. I originally chose Minato because he was the best choice at the time. Even you must admit that Minato was better than you."

Jiraiya nodded his head and softly said, "Yah, Minato defiantly surpassed me a long time ago. I still remember how proud I was when he finally beat me in an all out spar. To tell you the truth, being beaten black and blue by Minato and knowing that I taught him those skills filled me with joy. Minato was like the son I never had and losing him devastated me."

To the hermit's surprise, Sarutobi got up and place a hand on Jiraiya's shoulder. Sarutobi then said, "I know that Minato's death hurt you Jiraiya. That's why I didn't immediately appoint you as the Gondaime thirteen years ago. However, I am too old and weary now to lead the village through the rough times that are coming up. Whether I live or die, my time as Hokage is almost up and you're the best candidate to assume the position. Please accept this Jiraiya so I don't have to go with my next choice of successor. Minato would torment me for eternity if Gai's face was next to his on the monument."

Jiraiya's face went white when he heard Sarutobi's current number two choice as successor. Almost immediately, the toad hermit looked closely at his sensei's face to see if this was a scare tactic. Seeing that Sarutobi was telling the truth, Jiraiya sighed and said, "Alright, alright, I'll be Gondaime Hokage." Sarutobi was respectful and sympathetic enough of Jiraiya's suffering to not start dancing in joy.

* * *

Temari and Naruto were once again in their usual training field having a friendly spar. It was the day before the finals so this was only a light spar. That meant that Temari and Naruto were limiting themselves even further than normal and sticking with just D rank jutsus. The whole idea was Naruto's and he claimed that it would be really bad for Temari to get into a training accident now. This sweet thought had caused Temari to blush, but that blush was now hidden behind the sweat from the workout.

After an hour, Temari flipped backwards to gain some distance and she made the time out sign. She gave Naruto a tired smile and said, "That's enough for today Naruto. I just don't have your stamina for taijutsu to continue this fight."

Naruto gave his Suna friend a grin and replied, "Why didn't you just let me finish the spar Temari? Is the thought of losing to a genin not in the Exams really that bad?" Of course, Naruto knew that Temari wasn't that worried about her pride and he was just baiting her. Konoha's unpredictable knucklehead's grin widened when he saw Temari roll her eyes with an amused expression on her face.

Temari walked over to where she had left her towel and quickly whipped the sweat off her face. Then she discreetly pulled out a special lipstick container and quickly applied the lipstick to her lips. With the lipstick applied, the Suna kunoichi quickly hid the container again and started walking to Naruto. Once Temari was a foot away from Naruto she smiled and said, "Thanks for spending time with me this past month Naruto. I had a great time. I just want to say goodbye since we probably won't see each other for a long time once the Exams are over."

Before Naruto could reply, Temari leaned in and kissed him on the lips. This wasn't just a simple kiss but an open-your-mouth-so-I-can-use-my-tongue kind of a kiss. Naruto couldn't believe how good the kiss felt and sensations Temari's lips were bringing out. Suddenly, Naruto started to feel dizzy just as he was about to return the kiss. His eyes rolled back in their sockets and Temari caught Naruto's limp body.

A tear rolled down Temari's cheeks as she whispered to the unconscious Naruto. "Sorry for tricking you like this. But, this is the only way to make sure you're safe during the invasion. If a part of you is still listening, know this Naruto, the kiss was real." Temari quickly picked Naruto up and carried him into a secluded part of the wood. When Temari arrived at an area that was far away from any of the invasion routes she stopped and carefully placed Naruto on the ground. She then used her camouflage skills to hide Naruto's body. Finally, the Suna kunoichi slapped a stasis seal on Naruto's head. That would insure that he slept through the invasion.

* * *

Omake:

The streets of Konoha were packed with tourists here to see the Chunin Exams. This picture perfect scene was abruptly interrupted by the ground violently shaking. Most of the civilians thought that it was an earthquake. However the ninjas, especially the ninjas from Konoha, knew that Konoha was far away from any fault lines and immediately went on guard. The only thing that could mimic an earthquake was a very large summon moving fast.

The guards at the western gate were the first to verify that the pseudo earthquake was being caused by a summon. They were all shocked to see a giant tanuki made out of sand chasing a large toad. The tanuki then growled out in a demonic tone, "Die Uzumaki!"

Almost immediately Naruto's voice boomed back from the toad, "Can't we talk about this Gaara? I swear that I was just kissing her face!"


	7. Chapter 7

Deep within the Yondaime's seal, the Kyuubi let out a low growl. The terrible demon was both enraged and amused by the stunt that Temari had pulled. On the one hand, it was insulting to think that a mere mortal could get the better of his container. But on the other hand, it showed that the boy had gained good taste in women. Naruto would need a good mate to bare strong kits in the future and Temari was definitely worth considering. However, Naruto's love life didn't strike the Kyuubi as anything important.

The Kyuubi had no love for Naruto; in fact, he down right hated the boy. To the Kyuubi, Naruto and other Jinchurriki were the ultimate expression of the unnatural. Demons were the pinnacle of life rivaling even the Kami who created them. After all, the Biju existed as pure thought and energy. They weren't bound to the physical world or mortality like animals. Even humans, who were the closest creature to demons, were inferior because of their frail bodies and short lifespan.

Jinchurriki were by their very nature an abomination. How dare mere mortals try to contain and control demons? It went completely against the natural order of the universe. What these humans wanted only mattered as long as the demons were willing to allow. Did humans really think that they could usurp the Biju's place in the universe by simply locking them away in mortals? This situation was only more intolerable because many mortals dared to presume that the Jinchurriki were actually the demons they contained! Jinchurriki never were and never could become demons. All they would ever be are pale mockeries of Biju.

Nevertheless, the Kyuubi couldn't help feeling a speck of respect for his jailer. The brat put up with the stupidity of his fellow humans and didn't let their pathetic views of the world stop him. Such a feat wouldn't be very impressive if a demon did it since demons knew that they would long outlive the pathetic taunting of mortals. However, it was impressive that a mere mortal was able to withstand the taunting. Very rarely did a mortal possess willpower that could be compared to a demon's. The fact that Naruto had never attempted to draw on the kitsune's power was another point in the brat's favor. Humans, as a whole, were greedy creatures who would rather steal power than earn it. Obviously, the brat had gained a few demonic traits and sense if he was able to turn out like he did.

So to review, the brat was out cold thanks to the vixen and his precious village was probably going to be attack. This left the Kyuubi at a bit of a crossroads. It was within his power to direct his chakra at the seal that was keeping Naruto out. If this occurred, the demonic energy would burn away the seal fairly quickly; only seals specially prepared for use against demons and jinchurriki were able to withstand the corrosive effects of demonic chakra. Naruto would then quickly recover and probably go defend the village if it was under attack. Did the Kyuubi really want that to happen?

A fierce debate warred within the kitsune as he thought about what he should do. On the one hand, it would be a good prank to play on the brat and the Kyuubi could always enjoy a well thought out prank. Also, the idea of someone messing with Konoha before he got a chance to wreck the place was a good motivator. At the same time, the Kyuubi didn't want to be seen as caring about the brat or the brat's village. Also, it was about time that those insolent villagers redeem their one way tickets to hell.

In the end, the Kyuubi grudgingly decided to get rid of the stasis seal. Ever so slowly and carefully, the great demon directed the particles of his chakra towards the seal to burn it away. The demon had to concentrate because it was almost impossible to control his chakra once the Yondaime's seal filtered the chakra. There was the possibility of flooding the brat with chakra to rapidly burn away the seal, but the Kyuubi couldn't do that. First off, only the brat could control how much chakra the seal filtered. Secondly, that would break the agreement with Naruto and the Kyuubi would never break his word.

* * *

Jiraiya stood in the shadows of one of Konoha's stadium access rows and calmly looked down at the stadium's arena. Currently, the finalists were being shown to the audience and announced. This Chunin Exam was a relatively small affair with only six finalists. Of those six, only Lee and Tenten were representing Konoha. Suna had two finalists in the forms of Temari and Garra. Kankarou had been taken out by Tenten in the preliminary rounds last month. One of the remaining finalists came from Taki and the other came from Kursa.

The first round of the exams was between Lee and Temari. Jiraiya didn't pay any attention to the match because it wasn't important. Those kids were fighting for the judges and for the crowd; the Toad Sage was concerned about the upcoming invasion. Orochimaru would have to strike either during the exams or immediately after the tournament. Anything else wouldn't satisfy the snake's ego.

Originally, Jiraiya had wanted to be by Sarutobi's side so that he could cover his teacher's back. The fact that his presence would unnerve many Suna ninja who undoubtedly were working with Orochimaru was another reason. However, Sarutobi had insisted that Jiraiya remain hidden. Not many people knew that the super pervert was in Konoha and Sarutobi fully intended to capitalize on that fact. Jiraiya had to admit that having him leaping to the rescue as soon as the fighting started would be a bigger moral booster to Konoha ninjas than announcing his presence beforehand.

Down below in the arena, the first match did not last very long. Temari's training with Naruto all month had given her plenty of practice fighting against a taijutsu user. Lee was definitely better than Naruto at taijutsu. However, Lee's style was better known and Lee didn't mix up the Iron Fist's forms or add in moves from other styles. This meant that Lee was effectively telegraphing his moves to Temari. The fact that he was still wearing his weights since Gai hadn't told him to take them off wasn't helping the younger green beast of Konoha. In the end, Temari was able to set Lee up and pound him into lala land with her battlefan.

As Lee was being carried to the nurse's station, a thought hit Jiraiya. Where was Naruto? Team 7, like all the other genin teams, didn't have a mission today so why wasn't the boy in the stadium. There was absolutely no way in the elemental countries that Naruto would miss the matches. Jiraiya knew that his grandson would at least want to watch Temari fight. Sarutobi had let his super pervert of a student watch Naruto and Temari spar through the old Hokage's viewing crystal. It was obvious to any onlooker that Naruto had developed a major crush on the Suna ninja.

Suddenly, a chill ran down Jiraiya's spine as he realized something. Temari had also shown a great deal of interest in Naruto during the duo's spars. Suna was working with Orochimaru to attack the village. The Kazekage must have told his children about the invasion so that they we're caught off guard deep in enemy territory. Also, Temari had a strong personality and seemed to go after what she wanted with a determination that bordered on the ruthless. What if she had captured Naruto before the finals? Such a thing wasn't as absurd as it might at first seem. The kazekage's daughter's training was obviously in the Wind Mistress tradition. That particular group of women existed as an order before the creation of ninja villages and they were infamously known for capturing enemy men who caught their fancy. In fact Suna, although it wasn't mentioned in polite company, still kept a form of that tradition by allowing their shinobi to claim one enemy ninja they personally captured as a Sabain a.k.a. a seized mate.

This did not bode well at all. If Orochimaru won, than Naruto would end up prisoner in Suna or a lab rat in Oto. If Orochimaru lost, than his enemies in the village could potentially bring him up on charges of desertion of duty and collusion with the enemy. Whether those charges were true or not wouldn't matter if those bitter old has-beens formed a big enough mob. Jiraiya would rather be damned than see his godson face any of those possibilities.

But what was Jiraiya to do? It wasn't like he could just leave the stadium and go looking for Naruto. The Toad Sage started to panic a bit before he smacked himself in the face. He then quickly summoned Gamakichi and said, "Okay 'Kichi I've got a very important mission for you. I need you to find Naruto and tell him that Konoha is going to be invaded soon. After that, tell him to summon one or more of the major battle toads to help defend the village. However, you need to tell him to not summon your father. I'll summon Bunta to help out over here if things start to go south."

Gamakichi was normally a sarcastic kid, especially whenever Jiraiya got involved. However, he instantly caught on to the seriousness in Jiraiya's voice and the young toad knew that now was not the time for wise remarks. The little orange toad simply nodded his head and started hopping in the direction that he sensed Naruto was in. All summons shared a bond with their clan's summoners and could use that bond to locate a particular summoner whenever they wanted to.

Jiraiya glanced in the direction Gamakichi had taken off in and he somberly said, "Please be safe Naruto. I could never forgive myself or face Minato if something awful happened to you." With that said the Toad Sage directed his attention back to the area and started looking for the start of the invasion.

* * *

Hidden under the Kazekage's robes, Orochimaru looked down at the finals with barely contained glee. Everything was going exactly as the snake sannin had planed. The vengeance that he had been craving all these years was about to be satisfied. Sarutobi would regret taking away the position of Hokage that he deserved and giving it to that damned Namikaze. Orochimaru's 'beloved' teacher would watch as his precious Konoha was destroyed and then the old man would die.

The Chunin Finals themselves proceeded in an adequate manner. After Temari and Lee's match, Tenten faced off against the Taki ninja. Tenten quickly and decisively showed why you did not want to dismiss weapons mistress because she's a girl. That poor dumb fool would never be contaminating the gene pool thanks to Tenten's aim. Unfortunately for said ninja, Konoha's rising weapons mistress hadn't delivered any fatal blows.

A ten minute recess was called by the referee as the newly made eunuch was carried off of the field. During the break, Orochimaru glanced to his left and gave a subtle nod. Kabuto now knew that everything was set and that he was to launch the signal to attack as soon as Gaara's match started. The snake sannin then spent the rest of the break casually talking with his old teacher to keep any suspicions at bay.

Soon enough, Gaara's match was called and the invasion signal was launched. The Sound Four immediately threw off their disguises and disposed of the Hokage's 'elite' guard. At the same time, Orochimaru grabbed Sarutobi and held a knife to the old man's throat. Down in the area, Oto and Suna infiltrators jumped out the crowds and started their assault. A small smirk crossed Orochimaru's lips as he looked at a text book example of a surprise invasion going off flawlessly.

However, reality quickly showed that text book examples don't happen in real life for a reason. The bodies of Sarutobi's dead guards quickly fell apart revealing that they were only mud clones. Orochimaru froze for a second when saw this and realized that Konoha knew about the invasion. Sarutobi quickly capitalized on this momentary freeze to escape from Orochimaru's grip. The Sound Four shifted almost instantly to Plan B and used the barrier jutsu they had been taught to keep the Hokage from escaping.

This move by the Sound Four wasn't needed because Sarutobi had no intention of running from his former student. Sarutobi threw off his kage robes to reveal that he was in full battle armor and then he started taunting Orochimaru. "Did you really think that I'm so senile I wouldn't figure out that there was a snake hiding in the grass? You may be able to mimic a man's voice Orochimaru, but you'll never be able to mimic his mind. Remember to be aware of all the little facts that a person's has given out next time you try disguising yourself as someone else."

Orochimaru tore off the kage robes he was wearing and the Yondaime Kazekage's face. He then sneered at Sarutobi and said, "Your advice isn't needed Teacher. While you may have discovered my little invasion, it will all be for nothing. Konoha will burn around you and you will die." A wicked grin broke out on Orochimaru's face as he continued on. "I think that it's time I bring a few special guests to witness the destruction of Konoha. Resurrection to the Impure World: First!" A dark purple vortex appeared and a golden casket appeared. Orochimaru followed this by shouting out second and fourth.

Sarutobi's immediate reaction when he heard Orochimaru shout out fourth was to try and cancel the jutsu. However, the old Hokage kept his emotions in check and allowed the third casket to appear. Both ninjas had read that dark scroll detailing the Resurrection to the Impure World jutsu, but Orochimaru had obviously failed to do his homework. The Yondaime's soul belonged to the Shinigami and the death god would not allow anyone to steal his property.

Black lighting immediately encased the Yondaime's casket as soon as it was fully summoned. This lighting quickly struck the other two caskets encasing them in black lighting as well. Orochimaru looked on in shock as area around the three caskets was distorted and warped. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and all three caskets vanished. Almost immediately, Orochimaru let out a scream of rage and he shouted out, "What happened?"

The old hokage started to chuckle and he said, "You're such fool Orochimaru. Did you really think that you could just steal from the gods? You should be grateful that the Shinigami didn't just claim your soul for this offence. But don't worry; I plan to send you to him so that you can be held accountable for your sins."

Orochimaru quickly summoned his Kusanagi and prepared face his old teacher. The failure of the resurrection jutsu quickly forgotten as rage filled the ex Konoha shinobi's heart. All that mattered to Orochimaru now was wiping that grin off of Sarutobi's face.

* * *

Gamakichi raced through Konoha's underbrush tracking Naruto down. Finally the small toad's legs lead him to the clearing where Temari had hidden the blonde boy. The Toad arrived just in time to see enough of the stasis seal burn before it was burnt away to recognize it. Gamakichi quickly hopped onto Naruto's face and shouted out, "Wake up sleepy head. Konoha is about to be attacked!"

Naruto woke up almost instantly after hearing that Konoha was under attack and he immediately got into a defensive position. The blond ninja quickly spotted Gamakichi righting himself up and asked his friend, "Uh Gamakichi? Who's attacking?"

The young toad looked up and replied, "Oto and Suna are attacking Konoha. Jiraiya told me to find you and tell you to summon a big toad to help fight. You can summon any toad you want except for Pops. The old pervert wants to keep Pops in reserve if he needs him."

For a split second, Naruto froze when he heard that Suna was attacking the village and he wished that Gamakichi had been misinformed. However, his mind immediately turned to that last spar with Temari. Her eyes seemed to have had held a sadness in them that had never been there before. That sadness in Temari's eyes, even more than being knocked out after kissing her, that convinced Naruto that his little friend was telling him the truth.

Now the only question on Naruto's mind was which toad to take into battle. The top three heavy hitters of the Toad Clan were currently Gamabunta, Gamaken, and Gamahiro. With Gamabunta reserved by Jiraiya, Naruto had to choose between Gamaken and Gamahiro. So would a forked club and shield or twin swords be more useful. In a few seconds Naruto made up his mind and he summoned a shadow clone. He then bit his thumb and smeared the blood on the clone's hand. Both Narutos quickly put some distance between them and then summoned the two battle toads.

Gamaken appeared under the shadow clone and bewilderedly said, "Uh where am I? What's going on?"

The clone quickly replied, "Focus Gamaken, Focus. You're near Konoha and I need your help to fight off an invasion. Everyone who isn't a member of Konoha is to be treated as an enemy." The slightly slow witted toad nodded his head to show that he understood.

Over to the right, the original Naruto was standing on Gamahiro's head and he said, "Okay Gamahiro. I know we've only met once before and I haven't really proven that I can work with the big three, but I really need your help. Konoha is being invaded so could you please help me out?" The silent swords toad nodded his head to show that he would help out.

Hidden in the brush, Gamakichi watched as Naruto and his uncles left to come to the village's defense. For a split second, the little toad felt jealous of Naruto since the blonde was able to go off and fight. However, Gamakichi knew that right now he would just get in the way. The young toad bowed his head and said, "Good luck bro. I know you'll need it." With that said, Gamabunta's son disappeared back to Myouboku Mountain.

Meanwhile, Naruto directed Gamahiro towards Konoha's wall since that would be the most likely spot to find invaders. His hunch quickly came through as the duo spotted two giant snakes slithering through a collapsed section of the village wall. Gamahiro quickly leaped into the air and pulled out his two swords. The giant toad then sliced both snakes in half before he put his swords back in their scabbards and landed on the snakes' caresses.

Practically everyone within visual range of Gamahiro stopped in their tracks. Most of the Konoha ninja hadn't seen one of the legendary toad summons before and the invaders were shocked to see two of their summons so effortlessly defeated. Naruto was the only ninja not stunned by Gamahiro's deed and he quickly created several dozen shadow clones. Those clones launched themselves off of the battle toad and engaged the enemy ground troops hoping to use the enemy's shock to their advantage. Most of the enemy ninjas were able to defend themselves against the clone onslaught, but several were killed before they could defend themselves.

Ibiki Morino was one of the defenders on the wall watching Naruto fight. It was both awe inspiring and a little humbling to witness a genin working such a powerful summon. Unlike his companions, Ibiki was about to bring his mind back to present and he shouted out. "In case you people haven't noticed, there's an invasion going on. Do any of you guys want to face your sweethearts tonight knowing that some wet behind the ears kid killed more invaders than you did?" That quickly snapped the rest of the defenders out of their stupor and they directed their efforts to repelling the invasion force.

It didn't take Naruto and Gamahiro long to plow through the Oto contingent attacking this particular section of wall. Naruto turned to face his fellow ninjas on the wall and he shouted out, "I'm going to see if there are any other summons that need to be taken care of." Ibiki nodded his head showing that he had heard Naruto and mentally made a note to report the boy's exemplary assistance in a report with his own recommendations.

* * *

Temari looked around the arena and wondered how everything had become so crazy. Currently, the wind mistress was standing next to the Wind Daimyo acting as a body guard for him and his frightened wife. She had spotted the ruler of Wind Country cowering in his box seat and had been shocked to see that there weren't any guards by the daimyo. This didn't make any sense. Why had the daimyo been left out in the open? If he died, than any hope her father might have of improving Suna's business flew out the window.

Therefore, Temari had abandoned her previously given assignment of randomly killing Konoha villagers in the crowd for a self imposed assignment of protection. In the back of her mind she wondered what this would result in once this whole mess settled. On the one hand, abandoning an assignment was a very serious offence. But at the same time, only a brain dead moron would fail to see the importance of Suna staying in the Wind Daimyo's good graces. Hopefully, any future board of inquiry would take this into consideration.

While Temari was busy deflecting stray kunai, Jiraiya jumped into the arena and approached Gaara. The Toad Sage knew that his opponent was a jinchurriki and that things would spiral out of control if the boy brought the demon's power to bear. Luckily, Jiraiya had known about Gaara's condition for weeks in advance and had planned accordingly. The old ninja shrugged his shoulders and said, "Look kid, just give up. You're forty years too young to think of beating me."

Just like Jiraiya had been hoping, Gaara became enraged by the taught and shouted out, "You, I'll kill you and feed your blood to mother." The Suna jinchurriki quickly followed up on his promise by sending a blast of sand towards Jiraiya. However, Jiraiya easily leaped out of the way of the attack and quickly gave another taunt. This process was repeated several times with Gaara becoming increasingly more enraged every time the old sannin got away.

As paradoxical as it sounded, Jiraiya needed Gaara to let loose more of the demon's power in order to beat the boy. The only seals that Jiraiya had for dealing with a jinchurriki were ones that he had designed to knock Naruto out if his godson ever had trouble controlling the Kyuubi. This meant that the seals required a certain amount of demonic chakra to be flowing through a person before they would work. So Jiraiya thus got the fun job of playing bullfighter with Gaara.

After a few tense and fast pace minutes, Gaara started to show signs that the required amount of demonic chakra was pulsing through him. The Suna ninja's sand armor was starting to take on Shukaku's appearance and his eyes were looking more like those of a wild beast. Jiraiya knew that was the time to strike and he whipped out the prepared seal and made a mad dash to Gaara. Thanks to foresight in positioning, Jiraiya was able to slip under Gaara's main defense and slam the seal on his forehead. Almost instantly, Gaara froze up as the seal went to work and he quickly collapsed on the field.

Up on the daimyo's box, Temari watched with trepidation as Gaara was bound up and a chunin carried him away. It was obvious to Temari that her father's insane plan had failed. She than turned to the Wind Daimyo and said, "For your safety sir, I suggest that you turn yourself over to Konoha's forces. I'll accompany you to the nearest Konoha forces for your protection." The Wind Daimyo gave Temari a curt nod and the young wind mistress lead the noble couple to where there was a group of Konoha ninjas.

* * *

Konohamaru, his two friends, and a few classmates were running through the streets as fast as their little legs could carry them. Up until a few minutes ago they had been safely hiding in one of the underground bunkers. However, the enemy had somehow discovered the bunker's location. Iruka had frantically ordered everyone to leave the bunker while he and the other teachers stayed behind to delay the enemy ninjas. None of the kids had any idea of where to go and were simply running in random directions.

Udon quickly spotted a half collapsed wall with a lot of surrounding debris. There were several nooks and crannies in the debris that the Konohamaru Corps could hide in. The young mathematician quickly pulled on Konohamaru and Meogi's arms. Both kids quickly caught on to what Udon was trying to tell them and all three dived into the rubble.

It was a good thing that the trio had hidden themselves in the rubble because a few seconds later their classmates started dropping like flies. Someone on a nearby rooftop was targeting the munchkins with kunai. Konohamaru was permanently scarred mentally when he saw one of his playmates die before his eyes with a kunai logged in his head.

This scene of carnage became all the more gruesome and horrifying to the trio when they learned the identity of the killer. Sasuke Uchiha hopped down and pulled out his kunai from one of the fallen children. His sharingan was blazing as he looked on the sight of his handy work with satisfaction. Orochimaru had recently revealed to Sasuke that Konoha had ordered the destruction of the Uchiha Clan and Sasuke was thirsting for revenge. The village had taken his family from him, turned his brother against the clan, and had even tried to rob him of his dignity as an Uchiha.

Meogi was so frightened by everything that she let out a small eep. Sasuke immediately honed in on that sound and spotted the Konohamaru Corps hiding in the rubble. He quickly focused on Konohamaru and gave a very sinister smile. Perhaps it was time he showed the old Hokage just what it felt like to have your family taken from you. The rouge Uchiha pulled out a kunai and threw it at the Sandaime's grandson who was like a duck in a barrel because of his hiding spot.

Just as the kunai was about to hit Konohamaru, the ground shook and a great cloud of smoke went up. This smoke cloud was quickly accompanied by the distinctive sound of metal striking metal. A small gust blew helping to clear away the smoke to reveal Gamaken standing near the rubble with his shield protectively covering the trio.

* * *

Omake:

So to review, the brat was out cold thanks to the vixen and his precious village was probably going to be attack. This left the Kyuubi at a bit of a crossroads. It was within his power to direct his chakra at the seal that was keeping Naruto out. If this occurred, the demonic energy would burn away the seal fairly quickly; only seals specially prepared for use against demons and jinchurriki were able to withstand the corrosive effects of demonic chakra. Naruto would then quickly recover and probably go defend the village if it was under attack. Did the Kyuubi really want that to happen?

Suddenly, a giant wheel appeared in front of the Kyuubi from no where and a kitsune kit in human form appeared next to the wheel. The little kit grabbed a mike from behind his back and shouted out, "Welcome vixen and vermin to another addition of 'Will he do it?!' On Will he do it?!, we travel around so that people may spin our wheel of insanity to decide on critical life choices. Today, we are coming to you live from inside Naruto Uzumaki's stomach where the mighty Kyuubi is facing a difficult decision. Would you like to saw a few words to our audience?"

The Kyuubi put his paws over his eyes and started to cry. Why oh why did the demonic television networks have to find him? He really didn't want to deal with the fangirls back home in Makai.


	8. Chapter 8

The shadow clone Naruto stared at Sasuke in shock, horror, and rage. Why was Sasuke attacking Konoha citizens? It just didn't make any sense. There was absolutely no reason that could justify Sasuke attacking the academy students. A blazing rage quickly overpowered Naruto's shock and horror. Sasuke's actions were a betrayal of the vilest kind and one of the few things Naruto couldn't stand was betrayal. It was because of the villagers betraying the Yondaime's trust that he had such a rotten life. Naruto's rage became so great that he roared out, "Kill him Gamaken! We have to make sure that the Uchiha doesn't leave here alive."

Gamaken nodded his head and replied, "With pleasure Naruto." Usually Gamaken, like most toads, was a rather laid back and easy going kind of guy. However, the battle toad hated oath breakers and child killers. Since Sasuke was both, Gamaken wanted to split him down the middle and roast him alive.

As Sasuke stared up at Naruto and Gamaken, a small part of his revenge obsessed mind started to wonder if he had bitten off a little more than he could chew. The Uchiha Avenger could remember his father grudgingly complementing the Toad Summons for their abilities in battle. That meant that they had to be good fighters and it looked like one of the toads' heavy hitters was out for his blood. Also, a minuscule fraction of Sasuke's mind was worried about Naruto. What other tricks was the loser hiding if he could summon?

Konohamaru and the other two munchkins had front row seats for the cash of former teammates. Sasuke immediately sent off a volley of shuriken and launched a fireball at Naruto. However, Gamaken immediately blocked both attacks with his shield and quickly brought his forked club to bear. Sasuke managed to doge the club, but he wasn't prepared for Naruto to use the shadow clone kunai jutsu. The traitor tried to twist out of the way of the kunai. Unfortunately for Sasuke, two of the kunai hit him. One of the kunai pierced his shoulder and the other grazed his side.

The unexpected pain from Naruto's attack caused Sasuke to freeze. This just made things worse for the Uchiha because it caused him land wrong. Konohamaru, Naruto, and the others all heard a sickening snap as Sasuke's left ankle and knee broke from the landing. Sasuke let out a hiss and then he started screaming, "How dare you do this dobe! I must have my vengeance. This damn village needs to be destroyed for what it's done to the Uchiha Clan!"

Sasuke's rants caused something within Naruto to snap and he shouted back, "What the hell's going through your brain Sasuke? This village has never done anything to the Uchiha Clan. Hell, the villagers practically kiss your ass! Don't blame the village for you turning traitor. I don't remember the exact line in the code, but you've committed first rate treason and that means that you need to be executed. Gamaken, would you please take care of this?"

Gamaken muttered, "Sure Naruto. This scum needs to be put down." With that said, Gamaken brought his club down on Sasuke's head. The great battle toad then pulled his club off of the traitor and spat a glob of oil. Gamaken then looked up at Naruto and said, "Hey Naruto, could you lend me a match?"

Naruto nodded his head and replied, "Okay Gamaken." Quickly going through the necessary seals, Naruto used the Fire Style: Grand Fireball jutsu in an ironic twist to burn Sasuke's body. Once the traitor's body was burning, Naruto said, "Hey Gamaken, could you please guard Konohamaru and his friends? I'm almost out of chakra and the boss needs to know what happened."

Gamaken nodded his head and replied, "Don't worry kiddo. I'll guard these tadpols." That was all that the clone needed to hear before he canceled himself. Gamaken turned to Konohamaru and said, "Come out of there kids. I won't break my word to Naruto; even if it was just to his clone." Konhamaru quickly looked at his friends before crawling out of his hiding spot. After all, the toad had to be a good guy if he was with boss.

* * *

Orochimaru did not like how his fight with Sarutobi was going. The Resurrection to the Impure World had used up a lot of chakra; a lot more chakra than Orochimaru had been expecting. Also, Sarutobi was constantly reminding the snake traitor why he had wanted to summon the pervious kages. The Sandaime was old, but he was still a master ninja that deserved to be treated with caution by his enemies.

Thus, Orochimaru was trapped inside the barrier having to deal with Sarutobi's giant bag of tricks. It was rather ironic that the prison that Orochimaru had created for his old teacher now held him. There were no reinforcements for the Snake Sannin. Each of the Sound Four was hard at work trying to maintain the barrier because there were four squads of ANBU standing next to barrier ready to kill them.

Sarutobi calmly held Enma in staff form as he stared out at Orochimaru in-between dogging attacks and noticed the sweat running down his former student's face. A bitter smile crossed the old Hokage's face as he thought about his battle with Orochimaru so far. Like all of the Sannin, Orochimaru had a major flaw and his was his desired for flashing and unique jutsus. Also, there was the fact that the snake traitor loved to fight in a very aggressive manner. Sarutobi had tried for years to teach the boy to go for the simpler things and be a bit more defensive. Now, he was using those age old flaws to defeat his former student.

This student/teacher grudge match got an unexpected interruption when Sasuke died. Orochimaru's cursed mark created a bond between him and those he marked. That was how the Snake Sannin was able to influence anyone, except Anko who hated him with every fiber in her being, who was marked to follow him. However, most people don't know that the bond meant that Orochimaru was partially tied to his marked minions' life forces. This aspect of the bond only settled if someone had survived the marking process and Orochimaru used the anchoring effect to help possess his host bodies. Thus, Orochimaru never bothered to eradicate that flaw and was unexpectedly hit by the backlash of the Uchiha's death.

Sarutobi didn't know about this weakness in the curse seal. All he knew was that Orochimaru suddenly froze in place and that this was too good of an opportunity to miss. The old Hokage put all his energy into a powerful forward thrust with the Enma staff and hit Orochimaru square into the chest. Caught off guard, Orochimaru wasn't able to recover from the blow and was sent flying into the barrier. The Sound Four watched in horror as their leader and master physically died from the jutsu he had taught them.

Without their leader, the Sound Four were completely lost. Almost as one, they dropped the barrier and allowed themselves to be captured by the surrounding ANBU. Sarutobi calmly de-summoned Enma and said, "Secure them and place them in a high security cell. However, I don't want them harmed until we can interrogate them." The ANBU quickly and quietly followed instructions while Sarutobi moved to check on the defenses of Konoha.

* * *

The attempted invasion of Konoha had failed. Temari knew that because she wouldn't be stuck in a Konoha jail cell if Suna and Oto had somehow managed to rally themselves against Konoha's defenses. Temari let out a small laugh. The irony of her situation wasn't lost on her. Just three days ago she had been so sure of victory that she had drugged Naruto to keep him safe. Now, she was here enjoying Konoha's finest detention centers. Sure, she was in the VIP set of prison cells because of her father and the fact that she had surrendered. However, a prison cell was a prison cell no matter how you sliced it.

Temari flopped back onto her bed and her mind drifted to Naruto. If it wasn't so pathetic it would be hilarious. Here she was a prisoner in Konoha after a failed invasion and all she could think about was Naruto. What was it about the boy that ensnared her thoughts? She should be thinking about the safety of Suna, wondering about what was going to happen to her, or worried about her family. And yet, all she could think about was whether or not Naruto would like her after the invasion and her stunt.

Suddenly, the door into cell block opened and a Leaf ninja walked in. The ninja walked up to Temari's cell and unlocked it. He then looked at the wind mistress and said, "Follow me Suna ninja. The Hokage wants to talk to you. Don't try to escape or I'll kill you." Temari quickly got up and followed her escort out of the cell block. She was then lead to the Hokage's office and directed inside.

Inside the office Sarutobi and Jiraiya were waiting for Temari. Sarutobi was still wearing his kage robes signaling that he hadn't transferred authority over to Jiraiya yet. The Sandaime looked up at Temari and said, "Greetings Temari of the Sand. Please, sit down."

Temari quickly decided to follow the Hokage's directions. Once she was sitting down, the wind mistress's curiosity caused her to speak up. "Why was I taken from my cell? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be out of the cell. However, it's rather unprecedented for a ninja to be released prior to a peace settlement and I doubt that one's been hammered out this quickly."

Sarutobi's face remained neutral, but inside he was smirking. Trust a Namikaze to find a kunoichi with brains as well as power and beauty. This Sandaime then spoke in his usual grandfatherly like manner. "You are correct. Normally, you could look forward to at least a month in our jails while Suna and Konoha try to hammer out a peace treaty. However, the Wind Daimyo was impressed by your actions and asked a favor of the Fire Daimyo. The Fire Daimyo informed me of this earlier today and so, you are being released from your cell."

It was a good thing that Temari was already sitting down because she felt her legs lose all their strength. Being released before a peace agreement was a practically unheard of. Temari eye's narrowed slightly as she started to get over her shock. She then calmly said, "What's the deal? I seriously doubt that you would just let me walk out of Konoha even with the daimyos' request."

A small twinkle appeared in Sarutobi's eyes as he replied, "Very good deduction Temari. I can't just let you return to Suna even though we're in the middle of peace negotiations. However, I can give you a partial parole. You will be allowed out of your cell, but you will not be allowed to leave the village gates. Also, you will not be allowed to wield a weapon or practice any of the ninja arts until the peace treaty is signed. If you agree to these restrictions I will release you and have one of my ninjas look after you. After all, you will need a place to stay and I don't want an angry villager trying to take their frustrations out on you. Do you agree Temari?"

This was a very tough choice. A part of Temari longed to be able to walk around outside again. She hated being confined indoors. However, the thought of being unable to practice and being stuck in the village also stunk. If she accepted this deal she would simply be trading her jail cell as a prison for Konoha as a prison. Finally after several minutes of deep thought, Temari looked up at Sarutobi and said, "Alright. I agree to your terms sir."

Sarutobi nodded his head and said, "Very well Temari of the Sand. As of this moment the conditions of your parole are in effect. Jiraiya, please go and get our first choice of parole officer for Temari." The toad sannin had a knowing grin on his face as he left the room. Temari was confused by Jiraiya's grin and then her confusion grew into horror as Jiraiya returned with a slightly confused Naruto. Sarutobi then calmly said, "Good day Naruto. Due to a request by the Fire Daimyo Miss Temari here is to be paroled and allowed into the village provided that she follows a few simple rules that I've discussed with her. Since you already know her, I want you to act as her parole officer."

Naruto was stunned to find himself as Temari's parole officer. In all honesty, he was still trying to sort out how he felt about their last meeting. The fact that she had drugged him really bothered Naruto. At the same time he remembered, or thought he remembered, hearing her say that the kiss was real. Nevertheless, Naruto accepted his assignment and was handed a list of what Temari's parole entailed. He then calmly led Temari always from the Hokage Tower.

As Naruto led Temari around Konoha she was given dirty looks by almost every civilian crossing her path. Most people recognized her as a Suna ninja from the exams. Thus, she was a perfect target for most people's frustration and rage over the attack. Naruto saw the anger being directed at his charge and quickly started leading her away from the populated areas of the village. He wasn't about to subject anyone to the blind anger that he had suffered as a child. Naruto quickly decided to lead the duo to a quiet meadow near his apartment.

Once they were alone, Naruto turned to face Temari and he asked, "Why? Why did you do that to me Temari? I'll look after you and see that you're taken care of like the Old Man asked me to no matter what you tell me. I just want to know."

The look on Naruto's face and his genuine manner as he asked was simply too much for Temari. She started crying and nearly shouted out, "Because I, I, I lo, love you Naruto!" Temari then continued on in a quieter manner with her eyes closed, "I love you Naruto and I didn't want to lose you in the invasion. By knocking you out I was hoping to keep you out of the invasion and be able to bring you back with me to Suna."

To Temari's utter surprise, she felt Naruto hug her and whisper, "Don't cry Temari. You did what you did because you wanted to protect me and I forgive you. I may not know how I feel about you and I or what may happen in the future; but, I won't let this get between our friendship." For the first time since her surrender, Temari started to feel like something was going right for her.

* * *

It was a week after the invasion that the citizens of Konoha were gathered in the main square. Everyone watched as Sarutobi and Jiraiya walked out onto the balcony above the square. Sarutobi called out to the assembled crowd, "Good day my dear fellow visitors. Today is a day of sorrow and joy. It has reached my ears that many people are curious about where Sasuke Uchiha is. Unfortunately, the last Uchiha turned traitor and had to be killed. He was disposed of after one of Konoha's loyal ninjas found him killing academy students."

The assembled crowd started murmuring amongst themselves in shock. How could this be, many asked their neighbors. It was just inconceivable to them that the Last Uchiha, the one so many had placed their hopes for the future on, could turn traitor. Sarutobi quickly decided that it was best to destroy the people's view of the Uchiha Clan by revealing the truth. He then called out, "What makes Sasuke's actions so disgusting is the fact that he followed in the footsteps of his clan! I will now reveal a secret that this village has kept for the past six years. The Uchiha Massacre was not the actions of a mad man, but a village sanctioned operation. The Uchihas were preparing to launch a coup to take over the village and all attempts to negotiate with them had failed. If this coup happened the village would have been weakened enough that other villages would have declared war on us. Itachi Uchiha volunteered to stop his clan from their plan and was sadly forced to slay his clansmen."

Stunned silence was all that came from the assembled crowd as their worldview was turned on its head. Many people didn't want the Uchiha Clan to be a bunch of traitors. However, the older civilians and shinobis couldn't deny the arrogance and greed that many Uchiha's had possessed. Those traits, plus Sarutobi's reputation for honesty in his announcements, made it very likely that the Uchiha's were traitors. Also, having the massacre being a village approved operation would explain why all of the Uchihas except for Sasuke had been killed.

With the crowd now subdued and depressed, Sarutobi moved on to the good news. He then gave an uplifting smile and announced, "But, there is good news for us all today. The people of Konoha have remained strong in the face of adversity like trees in an orchard. However, an orchard needs a farmer to tend the trees and make sure that they stay strong. The Hokage and Konoha are like the farmer in the orchard. It is time that I step down from my position as Hokage and let someone else tend to the village. My student Jiraiya has agreed to become our Godaime Hokage."

The crowd watched as Sarutobi took off his Kage rope and hat to place them on Jiraiya. Once the hat was on Jiraiya's head, Sarutobi bowed to his student in a subservient manner. With Sarutobi's bow, everyone in the crowd below bowed to their new leader. Some people weren't too thrilled with Jiraiya being the Hokage, but everyone showed Jiraiya the respect that his office deserved.

After receiving the village's homage, Jiraiya looked out at his subjects and he spoke in an authoritative and wise voice that almost no one had expected him to possess. "I thank you all for placing your trust in me and I promise that I shall do the utmost in my power to insure that Konoha returns to its previous level of prosperity. I will also do what I can to make sure that this stays a place that our children will be proud to be citizens of."

"No doubt many of you are still reeling from the shock of finding out about the Uchiha. To be honest, so was I when I found out about it. It is expected of a shinobi to deal with cloak and dagger missions when the need arises. However, one does not expect or want such missions to be needed within the village. Konoha is supposed to be a place of safety for us where the harsh realities of war and the evilness of man cannot penetrate. We must all work harder than ever now to keep that wish alive."

"Look around you to the men, women, and children all around you and see them as your family. It doesn't matter if the people next to you are in your clan or not, if they're shinobi or not, or even if they're people you like or hate. When the chips are down, these are the people you can count on. Remember this fact and take a good look at yourselves. Ask yourselves whether or not you are the type of person that you would want to help out. You may not like what you see; hell, I don't like parts of myself that I see within me. But, asking these hard questions will help you become better people and help you work together as the village you are."

Jiraiya's speech wasn't the kind of ascension speech that the villagers had been expecting. However, it was just the speech that they needed. The Oto Invasion, plus the knowledge of the Uchiha Clan's true nature, had broken down many things that the people of Konoha had accepted about their daily lives. The Gondaime's speech served to reunify the village and prevent the recently cleared bad growth from regenerating in the population.

* * *

Sakura was lying on her belly on her bed crying into her pillow. Why, why, why was Sasuke killed? She refused to believe that Sasuke could have betrayed Konoha. As his teammate, she knew him and knew that it was impossible for him to turn traitor. Sasuke was just so strong, cool, and he detested traitors. That was why he was so determined to stop whoever it was that he wanted to stop.

Slowly, the self-delusion Sakura had built up in her mind about Sasuke started to crumble bit by bit. There simply only so much that she could deny and delude to herself during her examination of Sasuke before it all collapse around her. Slowly each encounter that Sakura had with Sasuke came to mind and, despite her wishes, revealed that he wasn't the prince in shining armor that she had built him up to be. In fact, Sasuke pretty much was a jerk.

This revelation did not sit well with the pink haired girl and threw her into an even greater depression. Sakura had always had an inferiority complex and her split personality could occasionally drive her into very mild amounts of depression. In the past, Sakura had been able to fight these mild depressions off because of Naruto's attention. But now, she didn't have Naruto's attentions and the fact that she had been in love with a traitor drove Sakura into a deep pit of self-loathing. With a spark of madness in her eyes, Sakura grabbed one of her kunai and slashed her wrists.

The sharp pain from the kunai cuts felt wonderful to Sakura in her addled state. It was as if all of her pain, depression, and self-loathing were just draining away from her. A grin formed on Sakura's face as she lay back down on her bed and let everything just disappear.

Sakura would have died if her mother hadn't been worried about her. Mrs. Haruno knew that her daughter would be upset over Sasuke's death. How could she not know about her daughter's massive crush and see the potential problems that his death would cause for Sasuke. For the most part, Mrs. Haruno was willing to let Sakura just stay up in her room and cry. It was the elder Haruno's hope that Sakura would have a good cry and then would be ready to talk everything through. Thanks to keeping her ear on Sakura, Mrs. Haruno heard the sickening sound of metal cutting through flesh and blood splattering.

Her heart in her throat, Mrs. Haruno rushed up the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her and busted down Sakura's door. She froze for a second seeing her daughter lying on her bed bleeding to death. However, Mrs. Haruno's worry over Sakura's life caused her to leap over to the bed and start wrapping Sakura's wrists with the bed sheets. The elder Haruno then scooped her daughter up into her arms and started moving out the door and towards the hospital as fast as her legs could carry her.

* * *

"Damn it! Why did something like this have to happen on my first full day as Hokage?" Jiraiya muttered to himself as he looked at the report in front of him. Inventory reports he could handle, mission requests wouldn't be a problem, petitions from this or that special interest group would be duly burned, but nothing had prepared Jiraiya for having to deal with one of his shinobis trying to kill themselves. In fact, Jiraiya didn't really expect to have to deal with this kind of problem due to the mental checks that the ninja force was supposed to undergo.

Unfortunately, the doctor's report on Sakura Haruno's suicide attempt was on Jiraiya's desk staring him in the face. Jiraiya quickly called out to his secretary, "Bring me Team Tenzou's mission reports and Tenzou's team analysis reports now!" Five minutes later, the secretary returned with the reports that Jiraiya had requested. The Gondaime then started reading the reports trying to find any clue as to why Sakura attempted to commit suicide. Tenzou's report showed that Sakura had a crush on Sasuke and had been getting a little vibrant than she used to be, but otherwise she was a normal kunoichi.

With a bit of disgust, Jiraiya slapped the reports down on his desk and started grumbling. "Great, just great, Naruto was on a team with a useless fangirl who barely improved despite her instructor's attempts and who thought offing herself was a good idea when her Prince Charming turned out to be a slime ball. What did Naruto and Tenzou do to deserve being stuck with their other two teammates? Maybe Team 7 is just unlucky. After all, just look at my Team 7, Minato's Team 7, and the latest Team 7. Maybe I should just retire the team name and have it so that future teams just skip seven and go to eight."

After blowing off some steam, Jiraiya thought about what he should do. His decision on Sakura was pretty easy to make. She would be put on medical leave for six months and would be kicked out of the ninja program if she didn't start to show massive psychological improvements. Konoha had no room or tolerance for an unstable ninja. Hopefully the shrinks would be able to get the poor girl's head back on strait. Tenzou was also pretty easy for Jiraiya to decide on. He'd simply offer Tenzou the chance to rejoin the ANBU or stay as a regular Jonin. Either way, Tenzou would make himself useful to the village.

True to form, Naruto was a problem for Jiraiya as he tried to figure out what to do with the boy. Part of Jiraiya wanted to simply take Naruto on as in apprentice. After all, he was the brat's godfather and should look out for him. However, things were still very volatile politically and bringing Naruto into the spotlight like that would cause a lot of problems for the boy. Yes, people probably knew that there was a connection between him and Naruto since Naruto could summon toads. But, Naruto's remaining naysayer's wouldn't be riled up if it was 'out of sight, out of mind'.

No, for now the best thing to do for Naruto would be to put him on another genin team. There were other reasons for putting Naruto on a team besides keeping the heat off of him. Naruto needed to learn how to work in a team better and there were still some basic tricks that he needed to learn that could only really be taught by experience on a team. Now the only remaining question for Jiraiya on this issue was which team to put Naruto on.

Luckily, Jiraiya remembered his approving Tenten's advancement to chunin earlier that morning. He quickly pulled out her file and saw that there was an opening on Team 9 due to the unfortunate death of Neji Huyga during the preliminary round of the Chunin Exams. Jiraiya then pulled out the files on the rest of Team 9 and made his decision. He called his secretary and told her to go summon Tenzou and Gai to his office. The two Jonins arrived a few minutes later.

Both Gai and Tenzou were wondering why they had been summoned by the Gondaime. They entered the Hokage's office and saw Jiraiya with a serious look on his face. Jiraiya calmly said, "I'm sure you two are wondering why I've summoned you here. Tenzou, I've got some bad news for you. Last night Mrs. Haruno rushed Sakura to the hospital in order to be treated for attempted suicide. Don't worry, Sakura made it. However, self-destructive ninjas cannot be allowed on the force and she has been put on mental leave for the next six months."

"This leaves me with a bit of a quandary. Team 7 and Team 9 are missing members and can't be let out of the village because of this. Thanks to a bitter amount of luck, both teams have enough genin and chunin among them to be made into a new team. Congratulations Gai, Tenten got promoted. The problem that I have is which one of you should be the Jonin sensei? Gai, you've shown very good leadership skills and you were able to turn Lee into a powerhouse when most would have written the boy off. However, you are mostly limited to taijutsu and could fulfill a vital role of teaching taijutsu at the Academy so that its standards are up. Tenzou, you are extremely versatile in your abilities and have shown that you do well with students who want to learn. However, you would also be useful back in the ANBU. I don't hold Sasuke or Sakura against you since you did everything humanly possible to help them as their teacher. Now, I want your guys' opinions on which one of you should be the Jonin sensei of the new Team 9."


	9. Chapter 9

Itachi looked at the note in his hand and scowled. Why did Sasuke do it? Why did his little brother have to be so completely stupid? This wasn't how things were supposed to be. Sasuke was supposed to be the redemption of the Uchiha Clan so that its ugliness could be washed away. Instead, his foolish brother had become the damnation of the clan bringing all the dirty secrets that Itachi had hoped to burry with his own death to light. Out of frustration, Itachi tore up the note that Sarutobi had sent him pleading for him to return to Konoha and let the pieces fly in the wind.

For the first time since that fateful day, Itachi was lost in the world without an idea of what he should do. Part of Itachi thought about returning to Konoha. However, the thought of returning to Konoha and the shame of his clan there was just too much for the last known Uchiha. Itachi thought about just slipping away into obscurity and settling down as a farmer or tradesman to raise a family. That idea was so alluring and tempting to the self-tormented young man. But, Itachi didn't feel that he deserved such a wonderful life after what he had done. Who in their right mind would ever think that a kin slayer deserved such a wonderful life?

About the only thing that Itachi was certain of was the fact that he couldn't stay in the Akatsuki anymore. Once the other members heard what was announced they would grow suspicious of him. Suspicion in a group of mission ninjas was never a good thing for the one that the others were suspicious of; it tended to result in the suspected ninja dying. Questions would be raised about his loyalty to the group when they found out that he had killed his family under orders. Itachi figured that Madara wouldn't stick his neck out for him and that he was on his own for this situation.

Well, that suited Itachi just fine. He had made it this far on his own; he would make it the rest of the way on his own. Chances that he would be able to make it to the next year were very slim. Itachi didn't like the idea of being a lucky kill of some bounty hunter or getting knifed in the back by the Akatsuki. Those two possibilities did not sit well with Itachi. If he was going to die, he'd die on his own terms.

The missing Uchiha ninja silently got up and calmly headed into Ame. No one down below paid him any heed. After all, he was just ninja to the ordinary citizens and the Rain Ninjas knew that the Akatsuki were servants of Pain. As far as anyone knew, he was just a regular old servant of Pain. Despite the severity of the situation, Itachi couldn't help but smirk. No one would expect what was coming on this, his last mission.

Slowly, Itachi made his way to the center of Ame to where Pain's Tower was located. No one was allowed in the tower except for Konan, Madara, and Pain's various bodies. This was actually good for Itachi because the fear of Pain kept guards from being stationed high up on the tower. The Uchiha ninja quickly used a jutsu on his sword that he had copied off of a Kiri ninja and cut an entrance into the wall. Itachi quickly flew into the entrance and raced down the hallways. He was now racing to locate the real Pain before his betrayal could be discovered.

Fortunately, Itachi's luck with betrayal held up this time around as he entered the central chamber where Nagato's body stood in its crawler. Nagato's body was famished and had dozens of chakra rods piercing it. In a way, it was almost pathetic. This near corpse that was only sustained by lost medical technology somehow managed to convince the people below that it was some type of god. Nagato turned his head to look at Itachi and hoarsely said, "You! How dare you enter this place! This is a forbidden area."

Itachi drew his blade and rushed at the frightened Nagato. Becoming Pain had given Nagato a major weakness: himself. In order to gain the paths, Nagato had to turn himself into a living chakra transmitter. This allowed him to wield immeasurable power through the paths, but left the real him as a target. That's why Nagato was hidden away and only Pain was showed to the outside world. Like any true ninja, Itachi took advantage of this weakness and cut off Nagato's head. Throughout the village, the various bodies of Pain suddenly collapsed because of Nagato's death.

Now on the clock, Itachi burned his way out of the tower and started attacking as many Ame ninjas as he could. Akatsuki needed the minor ninja village as a base of operations and as a place to launder its money. Any damage the village took would only hurt Akatsuki. Moreover, it would draw the other members of the organization out where Itachi could take them down.

Sasori was the first member of Akatsuki to appear against Itachi. The sight of the puppet master gave the rogue ninja a small pleasure. Itachi grinned at Sasori and called out, "Amaterasu!" The black fires of the Uchiha Clan's ultimate fire jutsu suddenly started burning Sasori's armor. Itachi kept pouring his chakra into the flames for a few more seconds before he let the fires burn on their own. Sasori had coated his puppet armor in flame resistant paint, but that was only against normal fire jutsus. Itachi had specifically chosen to use the Amaterasu against the puppeteer because it could burn through the flame resistant paint. That make the extra chakra cost worth it.

Even as Sasori burned to death, there was no rest for Itachi. Deidara had taken to the skies and was soaring over Itachi. The former Iwa ninja created two clay missiles and launched them towards the rouge Akatsuki operative. Over the explosions Deidara roared, "Art is a bang! Remember that traitor." Deidara then started circling overhead to try and spot his target.

Itachi had survived the explosions by ducking into a now destroyed shop. Survival was costly for Itachi because a wooden splinter about a foot long and two inches wide was now lodged in his right shoulder. The splinter rendered Itachi's right arm useless and thus stripped him of most of his jutsus. Suddenly, Itachi heard Deidara's mocking voice chant out in the sky, "There once was a little traitor named Itachi who killed his family. He thought that he could kill the Akatsuki. Oops, too bad, he failed and died with a bang!" Itachi heard the faint fluttering sound of Deidara's missiles and quickly rolled out of the store.

That explosion kicked up Itachi's feet as he rolled forcing him to do a handstand with his left hand and get in a crouching position in the middle of the street. Itachi looked up at the smirking Deidara and he knew that he had only one shot at taking that artistic fool down. This might be a suicide run, but there was no way that Itachi would ever allow Deidara the chance to claim victory over him. Focusing with all his might Itachi cried out, "Susanoo!"

Deidara nearly chocked when he saw the spectral warrior appear surrounding Itachi. Who knew that the oh-so serious Uchiha punk had something like this hidden up his sleeve? It just wasn't artistic to keep a masterpiece hidden from other artists. Deidara quickly spotted Susanoo's sword moving and tried to get out of the way. However, he wasn't able to turn fast enough and his ride was sliced by the sword causing it to explode.

Itachi weakly coughed at the sight of Deidara's death. Killing thre Akatsuki agents in one fight was pretty good for a single person and would set the Akatsuki back years. Suddenly, Itachi felt a sword run through him and looked down to see a bloody blade jutting out of his chest. He then heard Madara whisper in his ear, "Don't think that you're going to die like this on me Itachi. You've caused me quite a lot of trouble today and I do mean quite a lot of trouble. I've deliberately missed your vital organs so that I can prolong your death as much as possible. You will wish that you had never heard of the Akatsuki before I kill you later today."

* * *

The sun was peaking through the windows of Naruto's apartment revealing Temari sleeping in a futon set up in the living room. Temari was elegant and graceful in many things that she did, but sleeping was not one of those things. Her limbs were spread out on the futon, her hair was a mess, the blanket was all scrunched up, and there was a little bit of drool running down from the left side of her mouth. All and all, this was a typical morning scene where Temari was concerned.

Ever so slowly, the sun's rays started to coax Temari up. At first she tried to ignore the sun and stay asleep. However, Naruto turned the shower on a minute later and the sound was too much for Temari to ignore. The Suna kunoichi sat up and let out a half-asleep groan. Her brain then went on autopilot and dragged her body into the kitchen. Once there, Temari grabbed a highly caffeinated soda out of the fridge and guzzled it down. The caffeine from the soda kick-started Temari's system and caused her to fully wake up.

Now truly awake, Temari chucked her used soda can into the trash. She then headed into the living room and proceeded to put away her futon. Naruto was out of the bathroom by the time Temari had cleaned everything up. This allowed the Suna kunoichi to get in her shower while Naruto prepared breakfast for the two of them. While Naruto trusted Temari to cook for the both of them, he wasn't about to let her cook again since she wasn't that good. Temari finished getting ready for the day just as Naruto was putting breakfast on the table.

Breakfast was eaten in silence. The duo was still friends, but there was still some unease between them. Naruto had forgiven Temari knocking him out before the invasion and put it behind him. However, he was still unsure what he should do about Temari's proclamation of love. This hesitation on Naruto's part left Temari in an emotional limbo. What were the two of them? Were they just friends or were they something more? Neither Naruto nor Temari tried to bring that topic up after Temari's proclamation three days ago. This lack of communication just left things even more uncertain between them.

As breakfast was winding down, Temari looked up at Naruto and asked, "Naruto? What is the plan for today? Where do you want us to meet up?" Even though the terms of Temari's parole were generous, she still had to check in with Naruto throughout the day to make sure that she wasn't trying to escape. This of course meant that she had to fit whatever she was going to do for the day in with Naruto's schedule.

Naruto looked at Temari and replied, "Well, I'm going to see Jiraiya about my lack of a team. After that, I can't really say what I'm going to do. Let's arrange to meet at that barbecue place for lunch at noon. Then, we can arrange for another meeting later in the afternoon."

Temari nodded her head and said, "Okay, the barbecue place at noon. If you need to find me I'll be in the civilian library on Senju Street. At least there I can get some peace and quiet without too many stares from the civilians." Naruto winced slightly at the mention of the hostility directed to Temari. None of the civilians had attacked Temari, but a lot of sneers and hostile glares had been sent her way. It was to be expected that something like that would happen since many civilians were angry over the attack and Temari was the closest target. Still, that didn't mean that Temari or Naruto liked the civilians' actions.

The room grew quiet for a few minutes before the duo said their goodbyes. Naruto left a few clones to take care of the dishes and then headed off for the Hokage Tower. As Naruto walked down the street, he was given many curt nods of respect and even a few smiles by the villagers. Word had gotten around the village about Naruto's actions during the invasion. Many of those still on the council didn't like Naruto, but the average villager was starting to warm up to him.

Once Naruto got to the Hokage Tower, he quickly headed towards Jiraiya's office. The secretary knew that Naruto had an appointment and simply waved him on through. Naruto quickly spotted Jiraiya sitting behind the desk and two others standing near the desk. Judging from their age, Naruto figured that these were his new teammates.

Jiraiya quickly started talking after Naruto arrived, "Good morning Naruto. These are your new teammates, Tenten and Lee. Tenten has been newly promoted to Chunin, so she's on the team to polish off her skills before going on her own and to gain command experience. She is in charge of the team whenever your Jonin teacher is not around."

Lee quickly piped up, "Yosh! Welcome Naruto to the youthful Team Gai. It is an honor to have you on our youthf-" Lee wasn't able to continue his sentence because Jiraiya chucked an IchaIcha paperweight at Lee's head.

Everyone then heard Jiraiya mutter under his breath, "How did this kid pass his psych evaluation?" Jiraiya then took on a more dignified look and said, "Gai Maito will not be your Jonin instructor. He has been reassigned to the Ninja Academy to become the main Taijutsu teacher. If he is even halfway as successful with those kids as he was with Lee, our graduating genin will truly be formidable to the enemy. Tenzo from the now defunct Team 7 will become your instructor. Naruto, you know what Tenzo can teach you. Tenten, Tenzo can increase your ninjutsu so that you have less weak points. Lee, Tenzo can teach you about traps and other ways around your unique circumstances."

The reactions of the new Team Tenzo team members were interesting. Naruto had a big grin on his face, Tenten seemed thoughtful, and Lee was pouting. Tenten then looked at Jiraiya and said, "Hokage sir, where is our team's instructor?"

Jiraiya gave Tenten a small smile and replied, "Good thinking girl. Unfortunately, there was a critical mission that needed Tenzo's skills that you three aren't ready for yet. That means, of course, that you are in charge of the team for now Tenten. What your team does today is up to you. The three of you can train, take a D-rank mission, or just blow the whole day off. It's all up to you. Just remember to consult with Naruto when you're planning your team's day. He has to routinely check in with Temari Sabaku to make sure that she is honoring her parole. Now you three get out of my office so that I can work."

Tenten frowned a bit at the mention of Temari since it reminded her of Gaara and Neji's death. However, Tenten reminded herself that Temari wasn't Gaara and simply led Team Tenzo out of the office. Once outside, Tenten turned around to face her teammates and said, "Alright you two. I want to know how good both of you are and to go through some basic teamwork skills. We're headed for training ground 19. Naruto, I want to know the exact times that you're supposed to be meeting Temari." Seeing the look on Tenten's face, Naruto quickly complied as the team headed for training ground 19.

* * *

Konoha, despite what people outside and inside might claim was well aware of the dangers of that existed in the ninja world; the Leaf simply didn't broadcast its understanding of the real world. This actually gave them a measure of security since everyone else thought that they were a bunch of naïve fools. One example of where this played into Konoha's hands was a small holding facility that was run by ANBU for housing people too dangerous to be held in the village proper.

Tenzou was a bit surprised to find himself temporarily back in the ANBU working as guard in this facility. However, he was the only one with the skills necessary to look after a very dangerous prisoner. Gaara was confined to a large cage in the center of the room. On the floor of the cage was a large seal designed to drain away a portion of Gaara's Chakra. All of the boy's sand had been thoroughly scrubbed off of him and disposed of by dumping it into a river.

As a Jinchurriki, Gaara represented a major security problem. Killing him was out of the question because that would release the demon locked away inside him. That's why in the past, people fighting Jinchurriki aimed to disable, not kill. Tenzou was here because he was the best person to handle an enraged Jinchurriki if Gaara got loose. His mokuton, while not as effective as the Shodai's without the Senju jem, would be useful in containing Gaara.

Gaara was currently staring at Tenzou with hatred in his eyes. For most of his life, Gaara had been devoted to proving his existence by killing anyone who fought him and here he lay defeated. What was the purpose of his existence? Gaara looked on in rage at Tenzou who represented the loss of purpose. Why couldn't the Konoha ninjas have just killed him instead of putting him in this terrible limbo?

Looking at Gaara pulled at Tenzou's heart. The boy reminded him in a lot of ways of Naruto. Both were Jinchurriki and both, at least what was gleamed from other Suna ninjas, were dislike and feared by many in their home villages. However, where Gaara had given into despair and hatred, Naruto had overcome it. Eventually, Tenzou decided to break expected protocol and spoke to Gaara. "It's pathetic really. You have so much potential and yet, you're wasting it in this loathing of yours."

Gaara's face took on a more enraged looked and he shot back, "What do you know? My existence has been taken from me! What is a monster without the ability to kill?"

Tenzou frowned and calmly replied, "Is that all you think of yourself as? Having a demon sealed within you does not make you a monster. If you are a monster it is because you've turned yourself into one. Trust me; I know what I'm talking about. I have a friend who has exactly the same burden that you do and he is the farthest thing from a monster that any shinobi could possibly be. My friend has had a hard life and yet he's never given in to the temptation to become a monster."

These words cut Gaara to his core. All his life, he had thought that he was alone and that no one else knew what it was like dealing with a demon every day. Gaara wanted to deny Tenzou's words and retreat into his familiar mindset. However, being locked up in the cage prevented him from retreating and he had no way to kill Tenzou to silence the painful words. Slowly, these words moved through the mental cracks to Gaara's heart and forced him to see what he had turned himself into: a Monster.

Shukaku sensed that its hold on its host was diminishing and tried to counteract this. The sand demon sent every image of Gaara being isolated that had ever happened and intermixed this with feelings of pleasure whenever he killed someone. Gaara grabbed his head trying to deal with the massive influx of images. A brown aura started to form around Gaara putting Tenzou on the defensive. Just as Tenzou was about to pull out sealing ward, Gaara painfully screamed out, "GET OUT OF MY MIND! I AM NOT A DEMON ANYMORE!!!"

The demonic chakra emanating from Gaara suddenly exploded outward. This energy then shot up, folded in on itself, and then returned to Gaara. Tenzou watched as the returning energy slashed the kanji for redeemed above Gaara's right eye. Once the last bit of demonic chakra had returned, Gaara felt to the ground unconscious.

* * *

Hinata was walking down the streets when she saw something that completely shocked her. Naruto was sitting at Ichikaru's having ramen with Temari. Now, Naruto having ramen was not an uncommon thing and was why she usually walked this way. However, Naruto always, always ate his lunch by himself. Okay, so Ayame and Mr. Ichikaru would occasionally chat with Naruto for a bit, but the majority of the time Naruto ate by himself.

How could this have happened?! Naruto hadn't shown the slightest interest in any girl except for Sakura and that was in the past. Hinata had been carefully stalk-, er, watching Naruto hoping to build up the courage to ask him out. In fact, that had been why she was here today. Naruto hadn't been pursuing anyone and he had to deal with the disaster that had happened to his team. It had been Hinata's hope to cheer Naruto up and claim his heart that way. That plan was obviously not going to work considering how friendly Naruto was acting with his guest.

Suddenly, Hinata heard two nearby women talking amongst themselves. "Can you believe it?" One said to the other. "That Suna kunoichi is allowed to roam free throughout the village! Why the hell isn't she locked up with all the other sand whores?"

The other villager quickly replied, "I heard that it was some favor called in by the Daimyo. How unfair is that? Just because she's the former Kazekage's daughter she gets to go free."

Hinata felt an unexpected rage start to build up within her. Why was a Suna Kunoichi hanging around with Naruto?! It wasn't fair and it wasn't right. Naruto should be hanging out with her! Or at least, he should be hanging out with someone from Konoha. It wasn't right for him to be talking with a traitorous enemy. Unable to stand the sight of Naruto with Temari anymore, Hinata whipped around and started running away as fast as her legs could carry her.

The Hyuga heiress ran as fast as her legs could carry her until she reached an abandon training ground. Once in the training ground, Hinata threw her head back and let loose a scream of anguish and rage. Hinata had long been a very kind and gentle woman, but on that day her heart grew to hate Suna with every fiber of her being. That accursed village seemed to Hinata to solely exist to ruin her life. First, a Suna ninja kills her cousin Neji, then that village attacks the village, and now a Suna kunoichi steals time with Naruto. Hinata's eyes hardened as her heart hardened against the sand village.

* * *

Jiraiya was working in his office trying to sort out some necessary paperwork when he felt the minute tug of a summon wanting to talk to him. Putting down his pen, Jiraiya got up and calmly summoned the toad in question. The smoke cleared to reveal Pa standing on the floor with a solemn face. Jiraiya gave a respectful nod and said, "Okay Pa. Why did you want to talk to me?"

Pa looked up at his perverted student and said, "I just received word from the Crow summons. It appears that their summoner Itachi has died. Before he died however, Itachi was able to take out three other members of the Akatsuki. The Crows don't know which three Itachi took out; they only know for sure that he took out an extremely power member as one of his three kills."

Jiraiya bowed his head when he head about Itachi passing. As a person, Itachi's actions had repulsed Jiraiya. However, Jiraiya could understand and grimily admire Itachi's actions as a ninja. Itachi had put his own hopes and dreams, even his own family, aside for the good of the village. In a quiet voice Jiraiya asked, "Were the Crows able to retrieve Itachi's body?"

Pa shook his head and replied, "Sadly they couldn't recall Itachi's body. His executioner apparently had a seal in place that prevented Itachi's body from being summoned before the connection broke down."

With a sigh, Jiraiya replied, "I guess we'll just have to do an absentee funeral then. It's such a shame. Sarutobi had been hoping that Itachi could return to Konoha or at least retire quietly to the countryside. The punk really got screwed over by the village and his clan. He deserved the right to enjoy life. Still, thank you for informing me of this Pa. Is there anything else you want to talk about?"

Pa nodded his head and said, "You bet I do little Jiraiya. Ma and I are interested in young Naruto. The boy proved to be extremely capable during the invasion. Although Ma still has her reservations, we both want Naruto to come to the mountain for training."

Jiraiya stared dumbly at Pa and practically stuttered out, "You want Naruto to come to the Mountain? He's too young! Sage training isn't allowed to anyone younger than 14!"

Moments after saying that, Jiraiya's head was reintroduced to its old friend Pa's training cane. After some cranial landscape changes, Pa put away his training cane and hopped onto Jiraiya's badly bruised head. The disgruntled toad elder sage grumpily said, "Frogs leap before they look, Toads look before they leap. Didn't I specifically teach you that Little Jiraiya?" Unfortunately, the Hokage couldn't answer his teacher do to being unconscious.

Once Jiraiya was conscious again, Pa started to explain what he wanted. "Naruto has a great deal of potential, more than I've personally seen in any human before. I want to see that potential bloom. Normally, I would wait a few years before inviting Naruto to Myobokuzan. However, Itachi's actions have put me on high alert since there is no way to know what Akatsuki will do now. They might delay their plans to recruit new members or they could speed up their time table to not appear weak."

"If Akatsuki speeds up their timetable, Naruto is in grave danger. He's not a powerful as some of the older Jinchurrikis and his actions during the invasion have put him on the public radar. Naruto represents the best possible target for the Akatsuki if they do decide to show that they are still a force to be reckoned with. Bringing Naruto to Myobokuzan allows him to be trained in some of the lesser toad jutsus and gets him off of the public radar."

Jiraiya had to admit that Pa had a good point. However, the situation was much more complicated. Jiraiya looked at his teacher and said, "I have to agree with you Pa, but I can't have Naruto disappear. It would look suspicious if he just vanished. His new team would wonder what happened to him. Besides, it's an open secret in the village that Naruto is Temari's parole officer. There would be trouble if Naruto disappeared and she stayed around. I can't just lock Temari up again until the peace treaty since the Fire Daimyo specifically asked for her to be released."

Pa closed his eyes and thought about the situation for a few moments. The elder toad then smirked and said, "If Temari's presence draws too much attention to Naruto she'll just have to vanish with him. Arrange a scene involving some angry 'civilians' 'attacking' Temari over the losses from the invasion. She won't be hurt of course, but for her 'safety' she and her guard needed to move her parole area to an undisclosed location where she will be treated well. Of course, we'll have to bring both Temari and Naruto in on this little play to insure that it goes smoothly."

A small grin appeared on Jiraiya's face as he listened to his teacher's advice. It was such a simple plan and the best part was no one would question it. There only seemed to be one flaw to the plan from what Jiraiya could see. This caused him to speak up, "What about Ma, Pa?"

Pa shrugged his shoulders and said, "Ma would appreciate some female company. I'll just need to run this by her first before bringing Temari and Naruto back to the mountain."


End file.
